Dear Editor,
The Government of Guyana has signalled its intention to hire teachers from overseas to augment the local batch of Science and Mathematics teachers. This problem has been with us for some time now, reaching the crisis stage due mainly to the exodus of our own teachers to greener pastures, while the teaching institutions are not turning out replacements at a pace commensurate with the vacancies being created. There is now that void which is a worrisome headache for education officials here. The situation that confronts us is not unique to this administration or to Guyana when it comes to these subject areas, given that there is a worldwide shortage of these teachers. So what do we do? Hire recruits – that would solve the problem, but will it?
To address the shortage by hiring foreigners is not a quick fix as the present plan seems to suggest. For starters, where would these teachers come from? What would the terms of their contracts be? Would they be paid a higher salary than their local counterparts? All of the foregoing deserve careful consideration before any recruitment programme begins. I vividly remember those years under the PNC when teachers in the very same subject areas were sadly lacking and replacements had to be sourced from the Indian sub-continent. But we speak of a time when the national coffers were replete with foreign exchange from bauxite and sugar; today the former is dead the other dying, so there is less to go around these days as government struggles with limited finances to fill the void.
In the first place, teachers’ salaries would have to be raised to the level of their Caribbean counterparts to attract any foreign worker. This would have the dual effect of deterring those already here from leaving. If the government is considering paying higher salaries to the foreigners alone and not raising the bar for locals, then they might as well forget it, because this is bound to cause trouble as there will be low morale and great disgruntlement amongst the local staff which would be counterproductive to the entire process. This should be discouraged even before it starts. So what can we do then? There are valuable lessons to be learned from our Caricom neighbours who were faced with similar problems. St Lucia, for example, when faced with a severe shortage of nurses, teachers and laboratory technicians turned to the Guyanese market and batches of graduate teachers were allowed in to fill the need. This free entry as it were, did not last very long because the government quickly put plans in place to correct the situation which at the present moment has stabilized.
Guyana must put a comprehensive plan in place, and in addition to raising salaries we have to raise the age of retirement. Guyana is the only country in the Commonwealth Caribbean where active, qualified teachers are retired at the age of fifty five years; one should retire at age 60 like the rest of Caricom. While some might resist the idea and call it trivial, aren’t these teachers the very same individuals who tutor our students privately in extra lessons at a considerable cost? Wouldn’t we be better served if those persons were catering to the needs of a wider cross-section in mainstream schools? Other incentives or benefits should include housing, soft loans to purchase a vehicle and most importantly, increasing the number of teachers being trained in those critical areas. This might entail a revisit of the entry qualifications for those fields of study, among other things. I believe these plans would go a very far way in providing a long-term solution to the present situation.
Yours faithfully,
Neil Adams
