An Educator’s Response to Anna T. Singh

Oct 30, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please allow me the opportunity to respond to a letter by Anna T Singh, published in the October 29, 2017 edition of the Kaieteur News captioned, “So Teachers want to strike and Hold the Nation’s Kids at Ransom.
Ms. Singh seems to base her argument upon the premise that a majority of public school teachers hold extra lessons. This assertion however, is grossly misleading. Further, the idea that many (in reality, a small minority) who hold extra classes typically pocket $100,000 tax free every month is also absolutely untrue. No consideration is given to the fact that such teachers must purchase materials and pay rental fees for the venues where classes are held and sacrifice time with their own families in order to facilitate the service.
Note that while supplemental classes are necessary for some students, I do not subscribe to the culture of ‘mandatory’ after-school classes that seems to pervade the thinking of many teachers and parents. But I digress.
Ms. Singh in her missive affirms that teachers do not need to be compensated for any emotional distress and even appears to suggest that the “two months” of paid vacation is a privilege rather than a necessity. This reflects a commonly held belief that, “teachers merely write on a board and mark books, how hard could that be”?
You see, not many people understand that in order to educate children, teachers must necessarily make emotional connections with each of those 25, 30 and in too many cases, 40 or 50 students in each of their classrooms (children don’t learn from people they don’t like).
This is in addition to the numerous psycho-social interventions, behavioural issues, accidents and injuries and other extra-curricular matters that increasingly engage teachers’ attention on a daily basis. Can you imagine how emotionally draining this could be for teachers? Most adults outside of the teaching environment cannot!
Finally, the idea that salary increases for teachers should be based on performance is often premised upon the notion that teacher performance could be assessed through some arbitrary metric such as student performance on standardised tests.
How does one compare the performance of a teacher who toils in a depressed community where children have little or no parental support, with another whose students come from stable homes with parents for whom education occupies the highest priority?
Which teacher do you think would likely produce better results at NGSA or CSEC? Who would be rewarded every year?
I will not address the notion that recruiting teachers from the 80’s might somehow be the answer to the new and emerging challenges that teachers face in their classes today.
For too long we have treated the teaching profession with scant respect. For way too long, teachers have been asked to do too much with too little. They are under-trained, under-resourced, under-paid and under-appreciated. It is time that that changes. Let’s pay them well and hold them accountable.
It is extremely unfortunate that our children must lose two days of instructional time but if that is what it takes for teachers to be taken seriously, then so be it!
Sincerely,
Wil A Campbell (Educator)

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