Teachers deserve to be paid better

Dear Pastor,

I am an electrical engineer who worked for 14 years with Jamalco and went into teaching in several schools.

Merl Grove High School was the last school I worked. I taught mathematics up to CAPE and got 100 per cent passes almost every year at the Caribbean Advanced Proficient Examination level. I did not attend a teachers' college, but I got training on the job and used my management skills from Jamalco. I left Merl Grove High School in 2022 and started an online and face-to-face school with three other teachers. I sent you my flyer, but you did not respond or get me any student.

Teachers should leave for other places where they can get better enumerations which see the country benefiting from remittances. The country should train teachers and nurses for the foreign market, since the world accepts each profession. Teachers should seek other jobs because they have their families to secure. People are talking but they don't know the pains and hard work these teachers are experiencing and contributing.

I am also involved in farming and I have an electrical engineering company. I am earning a lot of money teaching both local and foreign students online. I encourage teachers to take their profession online. More teachers are planning to leave the profession to go overseas this summer. Please help with students in your church community. I will resend my school flyer.

Jamaica is a failed state and teachers, nurses and police will never get their true worth. I will say to all teachers that if you can leave for betterment, do so because no one will help them to support themselves and their families. I ask them to run from the country.

P.H.

Dear P.H.,

I know that you mean teachers and other professionals well. But some would read your letter and say that you are not patriotic, and that people who love their country would make sacrifices and stay in their country and build it up.

Teachers and other professionals are underpaid. It is not a matter that some are living above their means; they are really struggling to pay their bills. Everything is out of their reach, so to speak. The teachers and nurses will not run away from good if they were well paid. I congratulate you for learning how to survive and how to get ahead. I thank you for your contribution. Even those who leave this country do not plan to stay away permanently. Some had the intention to return but have not been able to do so.

It is said that "nuh wey nuh betta dan yard". So while we hate to see good people leave, we thank God for those who support their senior family members by sending financial support to them every month. Let no man condemn those who have sought greener pastures. They are still Jamaicans regardless of where they live.

Pastor