I would like to ask these questions about the editorial article of February 19. How do you know that the performance-based remuneration system at Sagicor Life Jamaica is a good lesson for our Jamaican teachers? What is the research base for your theory? Is the education sector similar to the business sector? Are our schools business enterprises that can be re-engineered at the touch of a button and have an email sent to the lowest level of workers to say buckle up or shuffle out?

You are focusing on the low performance of our students and have become the judge and jury of the situation, and you have indeed blamed this on teachers. Such bigotry! Have you ever been in a present-day classroom? Have you ever done a case study of any of these 'poor souls' (students) who have been deprived, as you put it, of their right to life in obtaining decent jobs? Have you ever? I would like to know.

myopic astigmatism

The inverse of this scenario is that most of our students have excelled, but you have failed to comment on this. Have you no hindsight? Are you saying to the Jamaicans and the international community that you are plagued by myopic astigmatism? What will you publish on Tuesday of next week, "The brainy bunch or the drunkie bunch?" Who pruned the trees that the brainy bunch came from? The teachers, of course!

Have you ever experienced the actions of students who are plagued by psychological disorders and mental retardation, such as attention deficit hyper-activity disorder and attention deficit disorder? Have you ever visited the homes of one of these children who we know from our experience are either malnourished or undernourished? Have you ever seen the look of pain on the faces of some of these children who, when they sit in class, are reliving the deafening sounds of the gunshots that they heard last night.

gunshot money

Do you know that some of our teachers who work in war-torn areas are paid gunshot money? Hello! Wake up!

My suggestions are (a) you revisit the fields of social psychology and really look at the major theoretical perspectives, especially the socio-cultural perspective and the social learning theory of A. Bandura and (b) you visit Silicon Valley in order to create the most trustworthy innovations and provide the same level of resources in all schools and (c) you give us a video capsule for the brain of the Ministry of Education, then you could introduce pay by performance, which personally, I am not afraid of.

In the same breath, let me just ask: What is the big deal about the $15 billion? What if this was a salary increase? Are you truly suggesting that the members of our noble teaching fraternity are undeserving of this?

Hello! Have you ever seen a teacher sweeping the classrooms, repairing the benches, using classroom desks as make-shift bridges to allow her students to exit the classroom after a heavy shower of rain. (Oh! And these are just a few of the multi-faceted roles of our teachers).

I am, etc.,

J. WRIGHT-HILL

wjenhill@yahoo.com