Jamaica being trawled for Teachers for UK

A picture of a school group in a Jamaican class.

As the number of British born teachers who want to work in the UK continues to decline, Jamaica has become a location to trawl for new staff.  Geoff Brown went to an Hourglass Education recruitment event in the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston Jamaica’s capital  on a mass recruitment drive to lure fresh blood to the profession.

Geoff is the Director of Hourglass Education and recruited 43 Jamaicans in the Summer to start this year at an academy trust in Hayes, West London and 87 others were signed-up on previous trips.

Geoff is looking for another 21 Jamaicans to start in January 2016. Other countries which have been targeted for this recruitment drive include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.  The difference with those countries is that teachers do not want to stay in the UK for life whereas apparently the  Jamaicans do.

Teachers in Jamaica receive one fifth of the salary which they receive in the UK and they also have up to 60 children over there in a class.  Their country follows a similar syllabus and exam table to the UK and their CAPE qualifications are similar to our A-Level.

The question is why the UK born teachers don’t want to teach in their own country any more.  There must be an answer to that dilemma.