Dear Editor,
A recent headline reported that “Education Ministry to tackle teacher absenteeism – current situation ‘unacceptable’ in light of massive government investments, says Manickchand (Chronicle, June 1, 2024).” The absence of 30% of staff on any given day, does much disservice to students, and has a dramatic effect on student learning and achievement. Teacher absence has a direct influence and is likely a key factor in low student achievement at the NGSA and CSEC.
The Government has been spending more and more on educational inputs. But massive investment must be accompanied by immediate return on investment. You can’t have massive inputs that are not producing improved results. Which businessman will pour tons of money into an enterprise and not have better sales and profits? Same thing with education. We have to see better results and cannot keep having 40% of students failing. That is simply unacceptable!
We must put an end to the chronic absenteeism we have now at 30% for any given school day. When teachers are absent, instruction is largely lost for that day. Simply put, if the teachers are absent, the students are not getting taught, and the subject curriculum is not being covered. How about requiring teachers who will be absent to send a video recording of the lesson for that day? In the USA, if teachers are going to be absent, teachers must leave lesson plans for a substitute teacher to teach. They have a list of substitute teachers on call if a subject teacher has to be absent. You simply cannot call in sick without sending any lesson plans. A class in the USA cannot be left unsupervised, and they will not ask another teacher to do substitute work for an absent teacher. A substitute must be called. If a teacher is chronically tardy to school and chronically absent, that teacher will not last long. He or she will be let go. In Guyana, we must get strict with those teachers who come to school habitually late and are habitually absent. That’s bad modeling. They must be terminated and given help to redirect their careers. There can be no such thing as “Guyana Time” in education (meaning people have no respect for time). The Teaching Service Commis-sion’s “Table of Charges, Offences, and Penalties,” includes the option of dismissal at the third breach for “persistent unpunctuality.” We must ratchet up teacher accountability with the available provisions we have in our rules.
In North Carolina where I lived, the State Board of Education mandates how many days of school you should have in a year and how many clock hours of teaching should be done. In the schools, the State expects instructional time to be protected because a teacher’s time-on-task in instruction to complete the written curriculum is essential to students doing well on the assessments (tests). If it snows and we couldn’t have school because the roads were bad, the General Assembly (Parlia-ment) has to give a waiver of the days lost due to severe weather conditions. Schools must also show how time lost will be made up. That’s how seriously instructional time is protected. Parents should complain to the school Principals and Ministry if a child’s teachers are habitually late or absent, to make teachers accountable for results. Principals must not be afraid to impose sanctions as necessary.
The Minister is reported as saying, “I think it’s fine to call for better salaries and so on. I think it’s ridiculous when people are unreasonable. It is fine to call for more. I think the system is going to have to become more accountable. I think accountable has to mean that, like in any other profession, when you don’t perform there has to be mandatory retraining or exit,” Manickchand noted.”
In North Carolina (NC), we do not get a one-month “Whitley Council” leave every four years, as in Guyana. Teachers work for 10 months and get paid for 10 months, yet NC teachers would do remediation and club activities after school, or attend professional development in overtime voluntarily for the good of the cause. We need to research how the Whitley Council leave affects student learning, time-on-task and completion of the curriculum. Should teachers who are chronically late and absent to school be entitled to the colonial era practice of “Whitley Council” or should there be a condition such as if you have a 90+% attendance rate, you are entitled to apply for that leave? We should not reward the chronically late and absent with more leave. Let’s put students first, while we work on teachers issues too!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate
