By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterRECRUITERS FROM the New York City school board, North Carolina and other North American states descended on the island on the weekend, trying to recruit more than 100 local teachers.
The move, reportedly done without consulting relevant local authorities, has left some officials worried and prompted others to issue a stinging warning to overseas recruiters who have raided the island several times over the last few years.
"No one is authorised to come here to recruit workers from any foreign country without the permission of the Ministry of Labour. If we know when they are coming in and if they don't get permits, we can have them arrested for breach of the Work Permit Act," said Barry Bailey, senior director of manpower services in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
He said that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture would have advised the Labour Ministry if the overseas-based recruiters had sought permission to come to the island to conduct interviews.
Edwin Thomas, public relations officer at the Ministry of Education, said that recruiters had not contacted him and that he could not verify whether contact was made with Education Minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, because she was not in office. The Gleaner tried unsuccessfully to make contact with Minister Henry-Wilson by telephone yesterday.
Mr. Bailey added that the Labour Ministry has already stopped interviewing sessions, began prosecutions and warned at least two overseas recruiters and will not hesitate to prosecute others.
"We will go to the extent if they continue because we don't know the conditions of employment, which we ought to know and secondly, they cannot come here without a work permit which is a breach of the work permit act," he said.
SITUATION IS MUCH MORE SERIOUS
But despite the threat of prosecution, reports are that recruiting agents set up shop at both the Hilton Kingston and the Courtleigh hotels in New Kingston on the weekend. Scores of teachers reportedly turned up to make applications.
"It is much more serious now because in addition to New York, they are recruiting for the other states, so you know they could probably bleed the system of all the teachers we have and they are taking everybody now, in all subject areas and specialist areas," said Dr. Adolph Cameron, the Jamaica Teachers' Association's (JTA) general secretary.
He explained that as a union, the JTA could not discourage teachers from seeking an economically viable avenue, "because unless you improve the conditions under which they work and this include salaries they are going to continue to go."
"But as an organisation interested in the quality of education that our children receive, we have to be concerned that our better trained and experienced teachers are leaving the system," he continued, adding that the need for teachers overseas is not going down.
A public opinion poll carried out in London last week hinted that recruitment drives may become more intense in the future. The poll estimated that the teacher shortage in the United Kingdom is set to worsen by as much as 140,000 by the year 2008.
Teachers in the UK were reportedly leaving the classroom because of issues such as additional workload and poor behaviour by students.
Dr. Cameron said that the majority of teachers going overseas do not want to leave Jamaica, but are lured by better economic prospects and because many teachers who are already overseas are achieving dreams they never thought they could such as owning their own homes.
"The Government needs to give a signal that they are wanting to keep the teachers," Dr. Cameron insisted, adding that measures such as the Government's plan to tax the transport allowance of senior teachers are not helping the situation.
Deon Green, The Gleaner's London correspondent, also contributed to this story.
