educators

There are moments in politics when two completely separate stories collide and reveal something much bigger.

On one side, members of Parliament are considering legislation that would increase their salaries and allowances.

On the other, the government is publicly appealing for trained teachers and retired teachers to return to the classroom because the Bahamas is short roughly 300 teachers.

Together, these stories raise a more uncomfortable question: What do politicians’ priorities say about them?

No reasonable person would argue that members of Parliament should never receive a salary review, because their work is demanding, requires long hours, public scrutiny and constant availability.

Is this the right moment?

When a government asks teachers to answer the call to serve because classrooms are understaffed, and “we need you and the children need you,”— while lawmakers discuss increasing their own compensation, the public naturally compares the two conversations.

Teachers are being asked to sacrifice, while the politicians want to receive more.

Teachers have spent years raising concerns about salaries, delayed payments, classroom resources and growing workloads.

Many have left the profession, others have migrated and some retired earlier than planned.

The result is now visible— a national teacher shortage.

The government’s response has been to recruit teachers from overseas, from lower-income countries and encourage retired educators to return.

That may help fill classrooms in the short term, but it does not answer the larger question: Why are so many teachers leaving in the first place?

If a profession is struggling to attract and retain workers, compensation is almost always part of the conversation.

The same can be said for nursing. Healthcare workers have long complained about pay, working conditions and staffing shortages.

Police officers, too, have spoken about the pressures of public service.

Across the public sector, many workers believe they have spent years waiting for promises to become reality.

Prime Minister Philip Davis, a supporter of the proposed increases, argues that Bahamian parliamentarians are paid less than legislators in several neighboring countries.

But so do teachers, nurses and police officers when compared to the United States and Canada.

In the context of Davis’ argument, we ask: How is the economy performing? What promises remain outstanding? Who is still waiting?

Governments often say budgets reflect their priorities.

Citizens apply the same standard to political decisions.

Owner of United Station Services Henry Dean is doing his part to ensure every child in the country as a tablet for the continuation of online learning, as schools remain physically closed.

He presented the Ministry of Education with 80 tablets for the T.G Glover Primary School.

Dean lives in the neighborhood and wanted to assist the children in his community.

“I owe this to T.G. Glover.

“T.G. Glover is personal and profound to us because we live here. I believe that a good number of students who attend T.G. Glover come from the surrounding area. It would be foolish of us not to pay attention to what’s next door. We want to encourage, enhance, support those in the neighborhood academically but it goes beyond that.

“My presence and involvement bring respectability to the environment. We want to continue to build that kind of reputation,” Dean said.

Education Minister Jeff Lloyd expressed his gratitude to Dean for the donation.

“We will not stop until every student, every educator has a device in his/her hand.
By the end of this year, we expect to achieve that. We expect that the 46,000
students in the public school and the 45,000 educators, administrators, teachers
will have an appropriate device capacitated to deal with online learning,” Lloyd said.

Dean said he has provided education for his children and wished for other children to have the same opportunity.

“I know what the value of education is. I have invested in it and seen it produce. My
children have succeeded, but they can’t be the only ones to succeed. This would
be a troubled society for all of us.”

United Sanitation Services is the oldest private garbage collection company in New Providence.

(BIS photo/Derek Smith)