THE EDITOR, Sir:TEACHERS TRADITIONALLY have a hard time - in the classroom, in the pocket, from the government and from parents. But it seems that they've been getting more of a fight lately.
The poor performance of our island's students in CXC and A'Levels has been placed squarely at the feet of the teachers - at least in one prominent radio news magazine, which seemed to intimate that this was the general consensus. However I believe we need to contextualise the teachers' situation.
A former teacher myself and married to a wonderful teacher, I have first- and second-hand knowledge of the challenges involved - fatherless, angry boys, powerless administrations, uncooperative parents.
CASE IN POINT
My wife works at a prominent all girls school in the Corporate Area and she has been repeatedly commended by her superiors and her students for her success in the classroom resulting from genuine interest and hard work.
But what does she face? Girls who have been raped, who live with older men, have gotten pregnant, who practically live on their own and an institution with no real code of discipline.
Case number 1: Several students at the school were caught in the sex act on a bus - they were immediately expelled. At the pressure of the parents involved who, as I understand, had the support of the Ministry of Education, the girls were reinstated. If public sex isn't grounds for expulsion what is? And what message does that send to other students? Surely the school's authority has been completely undermined.
Case number 2: A student cursed a bad word at a teacher. The punishment: apologise to the teacher. In former years expulsion would be immediate! But these days it seems anything goes with little or no consequence. The teacher immediately resigned, insulted by her devaluation confirmed by the slap on the wrist 'meted' out to the offender.
Case number 3: As I understand it detentions are no longer legal on the campus in question. They have been deemed 'unlawful imprisonment'. This apparently came about when a parent considered his child above detention and took it to court. The school lost.
Consider the powerlessness of teachers when all avenues of discipline (which worked for me and many of us in the 'good old' days') have been closed!
WHAT RESPECT?
These cases are real and reveal how our school system is being destroyed from within. What respect can administrators have for the Ministry of Education? Can teachers have for Administration? Can students have for teachers when at each level authority has been neutralised, even destroyed?
On days when parents are to meet with teachers to track their child's progress few turn up. When they do turn up it is a sister or grandmother (Mom is in the United States and Dad doesn't exist) or 'they try but they don't know what to do'.
Some parents expect teachers to raise THEIR children. The result: children have no respect for their parents.
What is interesting is that those students whose parents show a consistent and keen interest in their child's progress are the ones who usually do very well, whether single parent or married households. But usually where both parents are involved children do even better.
FINDING A SOLUTION
Now I am not suggesting that the blame for bad academic performance be laid elsewhere, but that it is allotted fairly and justly.
If it is not, then the improper solution will be applied. Case in point: performance pay.
If performance pay can make parents responsible, older men stay away from little girls, pompous parents submit to school rules and misguided children respect authority then it is in fact a foolproof idea! But something tells me the solution may have to be as complex as the problem.
May I just remind the 'teacher bashers' that we live in an environment rife with corruption, murder, economic and social suppression where young boys are killing and young girls are giving birth to a new and directionless generation with no faith in education as a means to upward mobility.
The education our children receive is far more powerful and negative than anything someone can teach them. Food for thought. I'm sorry it couldn't be more palatable.
I am, etc.,
MR. ROCK
mrrockcy@yahoo.com
Cherry Gardens, St. Andrew
