Bonded, but no work

Some teachers genuinely want to give back in service to the country.

Dear Editor,

It feels good to receive a scholarship to further your education. For most of us, receiving a scholarship is the breakthrough we have longed for to be the change in someone else’s life, or to become someone influential in life.

Receiving scholarships from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information was exciting, and we looked forward to starting our careers, not knowing the difficulty of what was ahead, the hurdles new teachers — or even the older teachers — had to cross just to become the influential people we imagined at the outset.

The very first hurdle was struggling to find three guarantors to sign our bonds. For some of us it was a walkover, but for others, like myself, it was a very difficult task — a horrendous task — to be asking strangers to stand as guarantor for somebody they don’t even know.

Another hurdle we experienced was the struggle to find a job. Based on the agreements signed we are bonded to the country for four years, but some of us can only get jobs for four months, eight months, or a year at a time. Many of my colleagues have had to take jobs in areas for which they have not been trained. When the contract period is up we have to begin the search all over.

I am pleading with the ministry to do something for us new teachers who are unable to find jobs and those of us who have to moving from one job to the next because of short contract periods. There are some of us who genuinely want to give back in service to the country.