400 Teaching Vacancies Filled Since the Start of the 2023/24 Academic Year

Just under 400 vacant teaching positions have been filled since the start of the 2023/24 academic year on September 4.

Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, who provided the update during Wednesday’s (September 13) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said 380 vacancies have been filled in schools, while advising that 519 teachers have opted to forego their vacation leave.

Mrs. Williams had reported in August that 854 teachers resigned or tendered resignations for the period between January and September this year.

“Schools are reporting that interviews are still ongoing. We are also seeing a good take up of teachers being their own replacement. These are those teachers who are approved for four months’ or eight months’ leave. A total of 519 have, so far, decided to forego their leave and remain in the classrooms,” she stated.

The Minister further informed that 68 teachers who were due to retire have decided to delay the move and remain in the education system.

“We really thank them for the decisions that they have made to continue to be in our classrooms. Of course, we thank our existing in-service teachers, we thank the new teachers coming in and, again, those who have seen it fit to decide to be in classrooms, even though they were approved for long leave or retirement. To all our teachers all across Jamaica, we owe you a debt of gratitude,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Williams commended teacher-training institutions for the work they have been doing.

Several strategies have been developed by the Ministry to assist schools with the teacher-recruitment process as part of measures to deal with the migration of educators.

These include engaging part-time, retired and pretrained graduate teachers, and final-year student teachers; redeployment of underutilised staff; merging small classes; using the block timetable approach, and increasing the use of information and communications technology in the classrooms.