Raise the retirement age

Oct 23, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Teachers should not have to retire at age 55. This is the age when teachers have become more matured and experienced at teaching. Yet this is the very age when they have to say goodbye to the teaching profession.
Doctors attend to your aliments and wounds. Teachers attend to your mind. If doctors can work beyond the age of fifty-five, why can’t teachers do the same?
We have had fifty years of a brain drain in Guyana. We have been losing skills since we became Independent. In such a situation, it makes no sense to be having a low age of retirement. We should be extending the age of retirement.
Guyana has a high migration rate. We are losing skills. We are also losing teachers. So it is not going to be easy to replace certain teachers.
Fifty-five is too young to retire. Teachers who have to retire at this age, often have to go and look for other work. This can be humiliating. There was a case once in which a teacher had to beg for a job from one of her former students.
Teachers deserve better. If there is any category of workers who should enjoy the highest pay in the country, it should be teachers. But since they are not politicians and cannot award themselves a fifty per cent increase, the least that can be done is to extend their retirement age.
We need experienced teachers in our school system. The poor results emanating from the school system can only be improved if we ensure that we have good teachers. The number of good teachers in the system is limited and it makes no sense to retire these teachers at age fifty-five, when they still have another five good years of teaching ahead of them.
It takes time for teachers to become experienced. The skill of teaching does not develop overnight. It has to be honed. This is why once teachers are capable of standing on their feet for two hours they should be allowed to teach beyond the age of 55.
There is the view that by retiring teachers early, you will be stifling promotions. There is merit in this view, but perhaps a system can be worked out in which a teacher can stay on after fifty-five, but not be eligible for promotion. It will be controversial. But the better option would be to allow teachers to work until sixty and then retire without any restrictions on promotions.
If we cannot pay our teachers well, then the next best thing is to allow them to work until they feel they should call it a day. This could mean having a flexible retirement. Teachers can opt to retire at 50 or to retire later, with no less of benefits.
One of the sad things about the age at which teachers have to retire is that they have to wait five years after their retirement before they can obtain their social security benefits. How are they to survive in the meantime on their small pensions?
Teachers, as soon as they retire, should be able to obtain their social security so that they can enjoy their retirement. It is not something that is worth thinking about. We have passed that stage. It is time to implement it. Not tomorrow, but today, because as we know tomorrow never comes, especially when you are a politician.

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