Photo credit: Jamaica gleaner
Authorities in Jamaica are planning to recruit foreign teachers.
The Gleaner reports that the Ministry of Education and Youth in the country has stated its intention to import teachers from Ghana and the Philippines to fill critical subject areas, especially in the sciences, which are formally filled by the teachers who are migrating to the US and other countries.
However, the opposition spokesperson on education, Senator Damion Crawford, has said, “We expect over 1,400 to migrate this year and we heard that the ministry is carrying in some persons from overseas and, instead of having a teacher retention plan, they are having a teacher immigration plan. That is an unfortunate situation.”
The permanent secretary in the education ministry, Dr Kasan Troupe, has told the country that plans were at an advanced stage to recruit overseas teachers to fill the vacancies. “We have a number of international organizations that have been in Jamaica recruiting, but interestingly, as we are trying to put our response together for this year, we have been addressed by other countries. Actually, they came to us indicating that Jamaica is a lovely place, they have an oversupply of teachers, and they would want their teachers to have the opportunity to serve in Jamaica.”
Troupe said the ministry did its research and found that other countries and international organizations from the Philippines and Ghana have met with education ministry personnel so far.
According to Troupe, the ambassador from Ghana had indicated that a team would be in Jamaica the week of August 11 to finalize talks with the ministry about access to Ghanaian teachers.
Jamaica has had to deal with the issue of teacher migration in recent years. It included the departure of 854 of them over an eight-month period up to August 30, 2023. Before that, 1,538 teachers had left the profession between January and September 2022.
Concerns were raised last year that if the issue of teacher migration is unresolved, more of Jamaica’s teachers could leave the sector by 2026.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education seems enthused by the prospect of welcoming teachers from the Philippines and Ghana.
But Crawford wants to know if they are meeting an acceptable standard and whether they are not merely using Jamaica as a gateway to the US.
