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Culled from BlackBritain.
When is it gonna end, the exploitation of us and our people??
First it was the nurse and now its teachers.
Regards
Manneh
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Ms. Estelle Morris, Education Secretary, insists that recruitment of
teachers from abroad would continue, despite worries in Jamaica about a
massive exodus of staff to fill vacancies in England.
"It's bad for Jamaica because they need their trained teachers and it's also
not good for British schools to be so dependent on foreign teachers..."
Ms.Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
According to delegates that attended the Association of Teachers and
Lecturers conference in Cardiff, British schools are robbing developing
countries of trained teachers in a desperate bid to solve the recruitment
crisis.
Teachers also said they were appalled by the pay, conditions and standards
of behaviour.
They stated that the current recruitment methods was allowing rich countries
take the best teachers form Africa and the Caribbean where they were needed
more.
One delegate Mr. Michael Catty from Hertfordshire, said "The
English-speaking countries, particularly those in the third world, are being
sucked dry...we are robbing these countries of their future and giving
nothing in return".
Teachers are concerned that only the supply agencies are benefiting from the
current recruitment methods where they charge 10% of annual salaries. The
teachers employed are usually temporary supply teachers who are ill-prepared
for the change, and are therefore not performing at their best.
Mr Catty added "No one is gaining, except the supply agencies. The country
gets at best temporary supply teachers or permanent teachers who, however
able and willing, are ill-prepared and cannot perform to their full
potential. The government and the country get a false impression of the
extent of the recruitment crisis. But above all the education systems of
many poor Commonwealth countries are collapsing".
Another teacher from King Edward VI in Chelmsford, said that although enough
foreign teachers are recruited each year by Essex to fill three secondary
schools by Christmas up to a third have gone, many of them by mid-term. The
combination of pay and working conditions are not what they expected.
The General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Mr. Peter
Smith said, "Its irresponsible to fail to face up to the teacher shortage
problem by using selfish cosmetic cures".
Earlier in march 2002, the Jamaican government complained that 600 teachers
moved abroad this year to work, mainly in Britain and the US, whist in 2001,
South Africa accused the British government of "plundering" staff.
However Education Secretary, Ms. Estelle Morris, said the government would
continue to recruit teachers from abroad despite appeals from the Jamaican
Education Secretary Mr. Burchell Whiteman that Jamaica was being bled of her
much needed teachers.
Mr. Whiteman had stated that from 2000 to March 2002, there has been a
proliferation of teacher recruiting agencies from Britain and North America,
who have been quite aggressive and successful in recruiting Jamaican
teachers.
Mr. Whiteman added, "While we are prepared to pay our teachers well, we
cannot compete with developed countries".
The Education Secretary Ms Morris said, "There is a shortage of teachers and
we've always acknowledged that. We have more teachers than for a quarter of
a century and we still need more. I suspect we will always recruit from
abroad and as long as they have the skills to do the job I have no problem
with that".
Ms.Diane Abbott, MP stated, "It's bad for Jamaica because they need their
trained teachers and it's also not good for British schools to be so
dependent on foreign teachers...".
The government insists that recruitment of teachers from abroad would
continue, despite worries in Jamaica about a massive exodus of staff to fill
vacancies in England.
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