THE EDITOR, Sir:
WHEN I asked my cousin, a teacher, her opinion on Dr. Omar Davies comments that teachers had failed the students in his constituency and were responsible for their poor performance, I got a vehement response. "This man has a nerve!" Then she launched into Dr. Davies 'attributes'.
Is this the same politician, our Minister of Finance who has promised us economic growth for more than 10 years but delivered steep declines, and thereby visit untold hardships on parents and children as well as teachers? Instead he has borrowed a pile and left us under a mountain of debts - and where have our taxes gone?
The schools and services are dangerously under-funded and decrepit.
The ministers insist on performance-based compensation for teachers but none for themselves. Look how the economy, law and order and infrastructure have declined under their tenure.
Dr. Davies himself is a politician who maintains a garrison which has its fair share of criminality, gunmanship and all types of violence in these said communities. All these make it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers to teach and children to learn. Right now in Jones Town and surrounding areas the children are hearing more M16 shots than ABC.
I am, etc.,
AN EX-TEACHER
Spanish Town
St. Catherine
