Tired teachers say no to summer school plan

Teachers and principals from across the country have come out against the Ministry of Education’s summer school plan. Principal of the St. Jago High school, Collette Feurtado-Pryce, said the proposed summer school would be detrimental to the overall well being of teachers and students. She said teachers have worked harder in the last year than any other school year in the attempt to adjust to the online platform.

Biology teacher at Calabar High school, Demar Barnett, described the Ministry’s plan as a fool’s errand, he questioned the practicality of reaching those unengaged students using the same modalities that had not worked before. 

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, called on students to take advantage of the Ministry’s proposed summer initiative in her address at a virtual town hall on vaccine sensitization for the education system, held on 11 June. Since the initial proposal, the Minister has had to backtrack on some aspects of the plan after facing stiff opposition from the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA).

President of the JTA, Jasford Gabriel, was still not completely satisfied with the Minister’s compromise. Gabriel has publicly stated that many teachers would have already made plans for the summer and would therefore not be available. Fuertado-Pryce agreed with the stance taken by Gabriel and said the teachers are looking forward to the summer holiday to refresh and prepare for the upcoming Christmas term and just like the teachers, the students were also suffering from “burnout”.

What then will happen to the over 120,000 unengaged students who struggled to cope with the change in modality brought about by the pandemic? In responding to this question Barnett asked; “Why would these students attend voluntary classes in the summer when they weren’t attending the mandatory classes during the regular school year?” He stressed that the issues surrounding their absence must be addressed before teachers are asked to spend time in “empty classrooms” during the summer.

While sympathising with the education minister, principal of the Creative Kids Learning Academy, Miss Haedi-Kaye Holmes, pointed to the need to reach those students who were not able to “log on” to online classes. Holmes said it would be more practical to have the students attend classes physically to ensure maximum reach. She was, however, against the plan to have teachers working in the summer, she described it as unfair to ask teachers to give up their holidays.

Jhan Marie Esson, a parent, believes the summer school plan is practical but agreed that the move would make more sense if the summer school was strictly face-to-face. “With the high number of students that don’t have access to devices it could end up being a situation where they are still unable to attend the summer classes even if they are willing.”

Barnett further questioned the feasibility of the plan, “If the teachers are tired and unwilling, then who will teach the children?” “The ministry is worried about the kids but the well being of the teachers must also be taken into account.”