Dear Editor,
I wonder if education officials tasked with making important decisions regarding schools from their air-conditioned offices in non-teaching environments actually consider the feasibility of what they demand from teachers.
Recently, at the secondary school where I teach on the East Coast, all teachers (over 50 on staff) have been told that they must report to school for duty regardless of whether their classes are face-to-face or online. At this particular school only Grades 10, 11 and 9 are required to be in the school building for face-to-face teaching. Grades 7 and 8 students are receiving lessons entirely online (at home).
My issue is about internet connectivity for teachers who have online classes. The school’s computers and internet connectivity can only be accessed in the Information Technology (IT) room. IT is offered as a CSEC subject at the school. Therefore, students normally have IT classes in this room and have first preference over teachers to use it as should be. Sometimes, classes are morning and afternoon sessions.
While the older students are using the IT room, some teachers may have scheduled online classes which they cannot conduct, with lower school students who have specific timetables and expect to receive school work during school hours.
A suggestion was made to buy equipment for a room next to the IT room to ‘boost the signal’. However, this may prove to be just as problematic because if many teachers are all sitting in one room conducting online lessons on different subjects, then no ‘Zoom’ sessions can be held and the lessons would have to be recorded and uploaded prior which defeats the purpose of having ‘online teachers’ in the school building. Teachers cannot be teaching (orally) different subjects to different groups of students at the same time in the same room.
Given the fact that we are in a pandemic and we are continually being lectured about safeguarding ourselves and loved ones what is the point of having teachers physically in the school building if they cannot teach? The lower school students are not there. Administrators have already implemented various methods to monitor whether a teacher is actually delivering work to his/her students and as seniors have the authority to implement measures to ensure that the children at home are receiving work.
Teachers who have face-to face classes with students must report for duty at school but is it logical to have teachers who are conducting online lessons physically at school and you cannot provide the facilities to have effective online teaching?
Another issue I have is the lack of furniture for teachers. Imagine reporting for work and not having a chair and little table to use personally. Some teachers are forced to squat on the chairs of absent teachers or force to intrude on their personal space. They are treated like second-class teachers and forced to endure back aches and pains from sitting on wooden benches or broken furniture. Then due to a lack of personal space there is nowhere to store records such as Mark books and Notes of Lessons.
When I started teaching, I was forced to beg for a chair at the Regional Office. I got the chair and had to write my name on the back of it and used it for almost a decade until it became worn. I got nicked on my backside continually by an exposed gigantic nail.
Of course, the furniture is not the personal property of the teacher but he/she should be treated with some amount of dignity by the Ministry of Education. When the teacher retires or leave the school the chair and desk should be given to another teacher or put into storage for future ones.
Editor, I believe that education officials should look at the situation of individual schools and not bunch all together. Not all secondary schools have the same facilities like Queen’s College or The Bishops’ High School. If a school cannot conduct online classes effectively and the teacher has internet access at home then let him/her work from home; the Head of Department and/or Level Head can monitor whether teaching occurred.
Nevertheless, I do hope that all students would be able to return to school for face-to-face teaching in the near future. In the meanwhile, the relevant officials should reward their teachers by ensuring that the school environment for them is comfortable. Please send some chairs (decent ones with handles and sponge) and little tables to the school (s) (the editor has the name of the one I’m at) so that teachers can sit comfortably to mark papers, prepare records, and say that they got a ‘nice gift’ from the Ministry of Education. Don’t treat teachers like beggars, squatters and ‘left behinds’.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
