As you will see, we had redefined the traditional notion of teacher retention. Retention was viewed as the retention of services and loyalty to Guyana and our education system rather than simply the retention of a physical person. Given our country’s position in the international ‘food chain’, i.e. our general relatively poor conditions and low wages, we cannot possibly rely on increased remuneration to keep our professionals, including our teachers. I believe that if something of this broader approach is adopted it could garner benefits beyond the retention of teachers.
“Cross Border Career Stretch in the Teaching Profession
(A few adjustments have been made to depersonalize the document and make it more understandable.)
Introduction
The loss of teaching staff, particularly trained teachers, is common to most open societies. This is largely because in these societies, teaching does not command comparatively sufficient material rewards and status and poor countries such as Guyana are at the bottom of the rewards table. The result has been and is an ongoing problem of teacher emigration.
Of course, the emigration problem does not only apply to teachers, and the national effort in terms of teacher remuneration (Guyana: 3.4 times the per capita income for the average trained teacher) is quite reasonable. Although all efforts should be made to improve the remunerative and working conditions of the teaching profession, it needs to be recognised that the size of our national income (US$860 per capita) is insufficient to seriously mitigate the problem. What is more likely is that the problem will be used to leverage comparatively larger increases that will have very little impact on the emigration.
In the case of Guyana, a 2002 World Bank public expenditure review had this to say on the issue of teachers’ incentives:
“Regarding the retention and performance of teachers, more training is at best a very partial solution. In fact, training at the university may have led to an increase in emigration. Similarly, the solution cannot be a further general increase in salary levels. As part of the solution to the teacher retention and performance problem, Government will need to recognize the importance of teachers’ role by giving them more voice in school management by designing sensitization campaigns that boost teachers’ social status, and by financially rewarding them for achieving predetermined, measurable goals… ”.
Recognising the intractable and regional nature of the emigration problem, in 2002, Caribbean Education Ministers at a meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados, formulated “the Savannah Accord” which requested, inter alia, the development of a draft protocol/code of practice for the recruitment of teachers in the Commonwealth. The matter was further discussed at the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers held in Scotland in October 2003 and elsewhere. If the proposed Caribbean intentions are achieved they should make the recruitment process more open and transparent, provide those who wish to emigrate with a better deal, allow national governments to become a major stake holder in the process of recruitment and possibly provide some additional compensation for the country of origin.
In these globalised times, however, when sizeable numbers opt to be trained as teachers precisely because of the opportunities for emigration, we must adopt new strategies if we are to maintain and improve the standard of teaching and thus the quality of education delivery. We must do so always bearing in mind both the global pressures and our specific socio/economic condition.
Career Stretch
This approach views a teaching career as continuous regardless of the national jurisdiction in which the teaching is actually done. It differs from the attempt to manage emigration because it does not view, and as a result does not treat a career move to another jurisdiction as necessarily emigration. It seeks to develop and keep in place professional links which might provide incentives for reengagement at some future date. As such, a managed departure (managed emigration) is only one aspect of this process.
For obvious reasons, every recruitment agency requires that new recruits have a good record. That record is developed in the original jurisdiction and if properly managed provides a most important link between present and future career success. Official references for all employment, but in this case overseas employment, should be based on a rigorous performance appraisal over some substantial period: say about five years. Teachers who have not performed up to whatever standards are set will be severely disadvantaged in their attempt to find overseas work. This can help to significantly improve performance in the original jurisdiction.
Quality Stretch
As a result of emigration, we are at present left with the less experienced teachers and the proposal so far will not solve this problem. An improved professionalism should result from the introduction of better managed performance appraisal and reference systems, but additional inputs are necessary if we are to improve teaching quality. The idea here is to use technology to achieve a level of quality that would normally have been acquired by experience.
In practical terms a normal teaching career is about forty years long, and teacher competency peaks after about twenty years. Because of emigration, our teachers remain with us for only about twelve to fifteen years. The problem with which this concept is designed to deal is: how to gain the teaching quality that would have been attained after twenty years in less than twelve years. We believe that here technology – in-service training; distance support; cluster monitoring and mentoring; the establishment of more and improved learning resource centers; rigorous staff development; improved inspection; a decentralized management system in which promotion and pay is based upon performance rather than length of service, etc can do much to aid this effort. …..”
(to be cont’d)
henryjeffrey@yahoo.com
