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Importing teachers – quick fix or long term solution?

Feb 22, 2011 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The brain drain of professionals from Guyana, amongst then thousands of qualified teachers, has been occurring for decades. One only has to visit the marking centres of CXC examinations in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana to see the hundreds of overseas Guyanese teachers, who converge yearly.
And this is just a fraction of Guyanese teachers who are in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and elsewhere.
It seems as if no one in authority cared about the situation until it has reached crises proportions. If teachers had been given incentives — such as fair salaries and benefits —perhaps this situation could have been pre-empted.
And what about raising the retirement age? Is it only in Guyana that teachers automatically become senile and demented on their 55th birthday? In other countries, including the USA and Canada people retire long afterwards. Primary health care and active/healthy lifestyles have made this possible.
When you consider the devalued Guyana dollar, you would realise that foreign teachers are not going to come for a pittance. They would have to get salaries comparable to international standards.
And what about housing, gratuity and other fringe benefits? Could these not have been given to Guyanese teachers at home to retain them and those abroad in order to encourage them back home?
Or is it because this is an election year? Laptop computers and other gifts are not magic bullets and quick fixes that will endure the test of time.
Due to victimisation in 1989, I (a trained graduate teacher) left Guyana and give my best years of service to Belize and other countries. I, for one, would return to Guyana if the retirement age was raised. I know of other teachers who would also like to do so.
Karan Chand (Ghasi)

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