By Elgin Taylor, Star Writer

Vernet McCarthy-Simms - Contributed

A teacher by birth is how Vernet McCarthy-Simms, a senior staff member at Planters Hall All-Age and Infant School in south-west St. Catherine describes herself.

She told THE STAR that she is passionate about the profession and could never see herself functioning effectively in any other.

She was born in Ginger Ridge in the parish of St. Catherine and attended the all-age school in that rural community. In later years, she enrolled as a student at Mico Evening College, graduating in 1999 with a teacher's diploma in primary education, and at the Northern Caribbean University from 2004-2006 where she gained an honours degree in primary education.

"I did not get the opportunity to attend a high school, and look at me now," she stated defiantly.

She added that she believes that every child should be afforded the opportunity to do so.

McCarthy-Simms got her first teaching job at her present school in 1970. She left in 1973, but later returned in September 1991. In the interim, she worked as a teacher at Davis Primary in the parish from 1990-1991, and as an assistant librarian at Ginger Ridge Branch Library from 1975-1981.

She said that she has a special place in her heart for slow learners.

"My whole world is centred around the slow learners," she said.

This fixation she said had not gone unnoticed, so much so that the principal has deployed her in virtually all the classes in the school where there are students with this special need.

"When they cannot read, they cannot comprehend, and so they develop a lack of self-esteem. This inferiority complex in turn breeds indiscipline."

This experienced, outspoken educator laments what she said is the misplaced priorities of our present educational system.

"I believe too much emphasis is being placed on the 3Rs," she said. "We must realise that not every student will become a doctor or a lawyer. We need to assist in developing the skills they have and to let them feel a sense of achievement."

She also stated that too much emphasis is being placed on the Jamaican Creole to the detriment of standard English. This she believes is a mistake. However, she stated that both can coexist in a manner which does not jeopardise the other.

In looking to the future, McCarthy-Simms said, on retirement, she would like to open her own early childhood education centre. And, judging from her achievement so far, this seems like another dream which is destined to come true.