Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

OCHO RIOS, St. Ann:

Dr. Adolph Cameron, Secretary-General of the Jamaica Teachers' Associa-tion (JTA), has expressed concern that more teachers are leaving the classroom in search of 'greener pastures' overseas.

"The regional office in Mandeville reported that over 20 teachers in the last two weeks have come to say goodbye because they have found jobs overseas," Dr. Cameron said while addressing the 42nd annual conference of the JTA, which ended yesterday at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort, in Ocho Rios, St. Ann.

He noted that checks with one of his colleagues also revealed that he lost five teachers to migration in the last two weeks. Three of them he said were heads of department and two were senior teachers.

"I don't know how we expect to achieve this world class education system outside of compensating our teachers because they are going to leave the classroom," the Secretary- General said.

Dr. Cameron noted that the only reason why more teachers have not left was because they did not know about the opportunities. "And as soon as they know about the opportunities they will leave also," he noted.

"The Government needs to wake up from the sleep in which they are and know that if we are going to save education in Jamaica we have to pay our teachers better," he told the more than 300 delegates and observers at the conference.

100 leave yearly

Adelle Brown, Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth declined to comment on the migration of teachers, noting that she was unaware of the cases Dr. Cameron spoke about. However, she noted that about 100 teachers usually leave the classroom each year.

Meanwhile, immediate Past President of the JTA, Ruel Reid, said teachers are yet to receive the $50 million revolving loan to assist with the upgrade of the island's more than 22,000 public sector teachers. Mr. Reid told the conference on Monday that the Ministry of Education and Youth has said the process for the establishment of the loan scheme will not be completed before October.

"While the grass is green the horse is starving," said Albert Thomas, JTA delegate from Clarendon. "There are teachers out there waiting on that money now," he added.