Dear Editor
Noble statements are admirable and Sean made a lofty one in asserting that ‘super salaries will not motivate’ teachers to high performance. True, but a super salary can be an enticing factor in producing motivation. If a teacher ‘ketch his or her nenen’ to reach school, has a poor lunch of bread and whatever, wonders if he/she can get home in time enough to cook cook-up rice, glances down and remarks to him/herself ‘I need a new pair of shoes’, and glasses and a good vitamin tonic, then money will be a super attractive motivator. The reason is simple: money removes myriad problems of living.
It is an old fallacy that the noble should starve and be economically and consequently socially depressed. A teacher’s falling down fence, rickety front steps, and rusty car are justified motivators of a strong desire for a super salary. Those who recommend starvation and an embarrassing standard of living as evidence of teacher nobility should try these themselves. Beg pardon! They already tried these in the years before billions of barrels of oil spouted up in Guyana. Guyanese are smart people. They know that teachers are not the only educators. Parents educate too. However, the ‘is not we, but you too’ mentality can produce a dangerous lethargy in which no one does anything. Teachers point at parents. Parents point at teachers. Students point at both. That is the kind of fallout that freezes the system and results in great vexation on all sides.
An attitude of ‘let us all be sufferers’ together exemplifies much reduced thinking capacity, and who wants to own that? Guyana has an opportunity that many countries envy. It is noble to spend money wisely! It is very noble to seek out and meet the social and economic needs of a people, who for more than thirty years, depended on the generosity of others. Recall the barrel culture! Can high performance be produced in the schools? Certainly! There are very specific management routes in education to high performance. Hire the expertise to show Guyana’s bright teachers the routes. High performance will not immediately be realized as student outcomes can depend on many factors: social, economic and, in Guyana, ethnic. Take time to identify the impinging factors and begin laying in a foundation for transformation.
This is a process which has already begun, I am sure, but if it remains just curiosity it can bear disappointing fruit. Reduction of class size is an excellent idea but it is part of a package which has to be identified or there will still be ‘burn out’ of teachers. Be properly academic. Research the recommended physical space needed for a single student. Find out what colours are recommended for classrooms and learning spaces. Get with it. In my school, there were smart boards twelve years ago and a computerized technology lab emphasizing problem solving, an interactive carpeted language lab, complete with headsets, and a console that could monitor an individual or class as needed, a science resource room fully carpeted with international internet access and also a console commanding a number of stations, camcorders for students to use to produce competitive films and so on, twelve years ago.
Guyana can laugh at all of this because Guyana can give much, much more to its schools in very modern equipment to propel the now generation into command positions in the rapidly growing economy. So, do not do it, and watch the takeover when the non-Guyanese have superior skills. Teachers must have very extensive and suitable professional training which goes beyond subject expertise and shows the way to manage the environment, to make a turnaround into high performance. Just pouring in money and beating the Ministerial breast gets the system not much further from the starting point. Hire consultancy. Hire expertise. The money will be wisely spent. Resist the two great temptations which new wealth offers: spending on ‘schupidness’ or small-minded, spiteful miserliness which sees generosity as a vice to be eradicated at all costs.
More shame if Guyana sets as a target the development of national grovelling! None of that. Pay teachers super salaries. Get up a non-punitive system of management which allows change and celebrates successes, even small ones. What a fascinating scenario! What a great opportunity for leadership in the region! Teachers are nation builders. Help them to build. Congratulations on the new salary agreement. Your response will be either ‘steups, steups’ or we missed the mark. Let’s try again. You tell your students to do that, not so? Courage, Sean. I agree that money alone cannot produce quality teachers. I suggest that neither can ‘ketch ass’. So I say!
Sincerely,
Gabriela Rodrigues