Letters

Unfair statements from Dr Davies

THE EDITOR, Madam:

When I asked my cousin, a teacher, her opinion on Dr. Davies' comment that teachers failed the students in his constituency and are responsible for their poor performance, I got in response a vehement "This man has a nerve!!" Then she launched into Dr. Davies' 'attributes'.

Is this the same politician, our Minister of Finance, who has promised us economic growth for more than ten years but has delivered steep decline? He has borrowed a pile and squandered it and left us under a mountain of debts - and where have our taxes gone? The schools and services are dangerously under-funded.

He gave politicians 103 per cent salary increase but insisted that teachers and others must accept 3 per cent under the hopelessly inept Mou which is an obvious throwback to socialism.

In the equation, if the government does not control prices, how can it control wages? It even failed to control the prices in the public sector.

The ministers insist on performance-based compensation for teachers but none for themselves, and look how the economy, law and order and infrastructure have declined under their tenure.

Dr. Davies himself is a politician who maintains a garrison enclave which encourages criminality, gunmanship and all types of violence in these said communities to make it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers to teach and children to learn. Right now in Jones Town and surrounding areas the children are hearing more M16 shots than ABCs.

After hearing all of Dr. Davies sins against teachers, children and parents, I insisted that she commented on the teachers' performance and she said, "Under the above circumstances, the teachers are doing the very best they can and what is critically needed is for the government to wake up to its responsibilities to the entire country, its children, teachers and parents."

I am, etc.,

AN EX-TEACHER

Spanish Town

St. Catherine