Education reform and the teaching profession

It is ironic that at a time when many western countries are seeking to reform their education systems, the teaching profession may be losing ground. In his text, The World Education Crisis, Philip Coombs notes that teachers are arguably one of the most important variables in determining the efficacy of any educational system. Barbados is apparently embarking on what could be the most comprehensive alterations in its educational structure since the Mitchinson reforms of the 1870s that established the basic structural framework on which it still functions.

There are many difficulties confronting the Barbadian efforts at educational reform, most of which remain unresolved. We were promised that some kind of blueprint would have been available to go before Parliament in January 2024 and that the reforms would somehow come into effect sometime in 2025. That clearly is no longer on the cards. Some of these unresolved issues relate to the structure of the school system, some to the cost of the reforms and some to staffing, the quantitative and qualitative availability of teachers. An article entitled Teaching Woes, published in The Economist of July 13, 2024, notes that, ‘teachers are increasingly morose, hanging on to the best of them is getting harder.’ The use of the word ‘morose’ is most interesting. Elsewhere in the article the teaching profession is described as ‘bedraggled.’

It must be obvious even to the most untutored that the ‘reimagined’ reforms will require a large complement of teachers and not just warm bodies before a classroom, but efficient educators. If, for example, we are planning to universalise nursery schooling and provide specialist teachers at the primary stage, (both of which are good ideas) that will require more trained teachers at not inconsiderable cost. Talinn, the capital of Estonia, apparently boasts a cadre of well trained bright teachers, but The Economist writer warns that the country faces ‘a formidable long-term challenge’ to the  teacher component.

More than half its teachers are over 50. Many will retire in the next 10 years and the country is finding it difficult to recruit and retain younger persons to replace them. This pattern is being replicated in many western countries. One of three new teachers quit the profession within three years and roughly half in five years. In 2023 the national chamber of commerce in Estonia lamented that only 13 physics teachers had been trained in ten years. In Europe as a whole, 38 out of 43 education systems reported staffing problems of one kind or another. In England, the government missed its targets for the recruitment into teacher-training courses for most of the last decade. The teacher shortage is most acutely felt in disciplines such as maths, the sciences and computer technologies, precisely those areas that countries need to stress in their efforts to reform education to meet the needs of the future.

In Barbados, where everything is opaque, or to use the late Frances Chandler words, ‘hidden in the shadows,’ it is difficult to know the state of the teaching profession. If we are talking in quantitative terms, there is little evidence that classrooms in Barbados generally speaking go unattended. There is always a warm body present. Where a teacher is absent, another teacher with a ‘free or non-teaching period’ is asked to sit with the class. Barbados does not have a system of substitute teaching as in Canada. There is however, ample evidence of qualitative deficiencies in the teaching. In Barbados, because the country is so small, the truth is hardly ever spoken in public. One needs to listen to the whispers. The late Matthew Farley and myself once wondered whether the teaching profession wasn’t beginning to draw from the bottom of the intellectual barrel. From what one hears there seems to be a deficiency of teachers to teach at the CAPE level, particularly in certain disciplines. Heads of departments who sit in on interviews have expressed dismay at the quality of persons offering themselves to teach certain subjects at sixth form level. I could tell readers my own experience in this regard. However, there are still many bright and committed teachers in the system, in fact Barbadian schooling does as well as it does because of the efforts of committed teachers who know the content material, can teach it effectively and have the children’s interests at heart.

It is increasingly obvious that as elsewhere the teaching profession in Barbados is finding it difficult to attract and retain a complement of quality teachers. It is certainly clear that it cannot co-opt male teachers in the numbers that it once did. In academic year 1999-2000 there were 1487 primary school teachers, of which 1157 were female and 330 were males. In year 2000-2001 there were 632 females and 153 males in the primary system. Males were better represented at the secondary level but were still outnumbered by females. In year 1999-2000 in the then 23 secondary schools, there were 1,304 teachers of which 740 were ladies and 564 were men. I believe that since then the gender gap has widened in terms of the preponderance of women over men in the teaching service in Barbados.

As The Economist magazine points, out the monetary uncompetitive nature of teacher salaries is unquestionably a key factor in school system’s incapacity to retain a better quality of teacher. According to the OECD, in richer countries teachers earn about 10 per cent less than the average for people with a tertiary level education. In real terms teachers in England earned 12 per cent less in 2022 than in 2010. In America, real wages for teachers declined about 6 per cent over the same period 2010-2022.  Another factor in the non-attractiveness of teaching is the fact that beyond remuneration, the job has become more difficult and less emotionally satisfying. I once heard a very good teacher say that even if you loved teaching, it was becoming increasing less rewarding than it used to be. Student indiscipline, a declining school culture, administrative incompetence and parental opposition all round, are making the task more stressful. Earlier, I stated that the article had described teachers as feeling ‘morose and ‘bedraggled.’ The requirement that Barbadian teachers stay on until 67 will take a heavy toll on them. After age 62 or 63 many teachers begin to show signs of burn-out whether they choose to admit or not. Many may not live long enough to enjoy retirement. A teacher last year admitted to me that she was so worn out that she often felt that she was merely ‘going through the motions.’ Not good for her or her students.

Another key factor in the profession’s decline is the loss of public respect. One of the reasons why schools in Japan, Singapore and South Korea are doing well is the fact that in those counties apart from a culture of learning (as opposed to a back back and juck and a pooch spinning culture), teachers are highly respected. When a teacher enters a classroom in Japan, I am told that students clasp their hand and bow to the teacher.  I told this story before but will repeat it. A young lady ostensibly of some prestigious family background got engaged to be married. A friend of the soon-to-be bride’s mother asked what the prospective groom did for a living. When told that he was a teacher, she replied ‘only a teacher? I thought she would have done better.’ I await the coming of the great ‘Transformation’ and pray Almighty God for ‘Resilience.’