Some teachers just collecting a salary – Minister Jackson
When students are sent from the primary school environment to the secondary school setting and are unable to read and write, that creates a frustrating situation for an individual.
Also, too many teachers are not really interested in the holistic success of a student and are simply just collecting a salary, the Minister of Education stated.
“I’ll tell you something I’ve noticed as an educator, and now as an education administrator, there’s a kind of a lack of empathy among the persons who deliver our education services.
“While there are still many teachers who love what they do, there some of them, who for them, teaching is just a job. And for them, the students are just students,” Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Innovation and Digital Transformation Philip Jackson told participants at a recent consultation on school violence.
He said that “long ago”, the relationship between a teacher and a student was one where the teacher saw the student as a whole individual and cared for every aspect of their development.
“…as a student, you spend at least eight hours in school, not just in a classroom, but from getting to school and getting back home. It therefore means we have a solemn responsibility right there in the classroom to treat each student as an individual with varying needs, and do not judge each student by how well the top students are doing,” Minister Jackson told the forum, while adding that each individual must be seen along a journey in education, taking them from where they are to where they need to be.
Addressing the issues of reading, writing and numeracy, the education minister said when students are sent into secondary schools from grade six unprepared to read and write, what happens is that they are sent into a situation that intensifies their frustration.
“That’s why the dropout rate increases in St Vincent and the Grenadines. It’s not a simple formula, but I believe…that if we ensure that in primary schools, our students are well prepared, when they leave grade six to read and write and do numeracy well, I believe a lot of the challenges in secondary school will be reduced, and that we would have students who are more disciplined and focused,” Jackson commented.
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