"Blame nuh drop a grung". That was a little saying I learnt from a teacher while I was in primary school. I laughed at it then, but as I grew older, I came to realise the true meaning of it. It is no wonder that teachers get blamed for the underperformance of students, especially at the CXC level, but when the students do well they are considered brilliant.

It is widely known that the main problem we have with our education system is a lack of adequate funding and that teachers are given a ship to sail on dry land.

Although I am not in a position to state whether the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is in crisis or not, before I disagree with the editorial writer (February 22), I would have to ask how would teachers' performance be measured?

Level playing field

If it is about how many students a teacher can get to pass a particular exam, I am in total support of the JTA and its president. I believe the playing field must be level for all schools. This would allow us to see the true quality of the teachers coming to the fore.

Now, if the Government or anybody else disagrees with what the president of the JTA suggested, they should step forward, put a better proposal on the table which they believe can work or cause the stakeholders in the education system to engage in a reasonable debate to see how their proposal can work.

The argument about the Government acquiescing to an allocation of $15 billion in additional pay for teachers is irrelevant. It could be easily argued that if the price of a two-pound loaf of bread went up by 25 per cent in the supermarket, should I now ask the proprietors of the supermarket to give me the same percentage more in weight?

Major players

Of course, it cannot be right for a third of Jamaican students to leave primary schools illiterate; or that no more than 20 per cent, having completed secondary schools, are able to matriculate immediately to tertiary institutions. However, it cannot be right to lay the blame squarely at the foot of any one set of individuals or institutions. Furthermore, do we have enough tertiary institutions in place to receive more than 20 per cent of the secondary school population? But that is a different story.

There are four major players in our education system: the Government (minister, ministries, policies, etc); the school (teachers, physical environs and learning resources); parents and the students.

Out of all these four players, the player that has the most bearing on what a student become at the end of his or her secondary school life is the student. That is tried, tested and proven, but I am not surprised that teachers get the blame. "Jackass sey di world nuh level".

I am, etc.,

RODERICK WILLIAMS

wllmsroderick@yahoo.com