Demand & Supply for Science and Technology Teachers at the Secondary and Tertiary Level within Jamaica and wider CARICOM Region

Research has shown that a general lack of preparation among secondary school students in the areas of science and technology has contributed to low tertiary-level enrolment. Such inadequate preparation is often the result of an existing teacher population not suitably trained to teach the relevant disciplines and /or a general shortage of laboratory facilities. Consequently, there is a conspicuous need for teachers of mathematics and science and engineering in most CARICOM territories and the insufficient supply of both is seemingly coupled with diminishing interest in scientific studies among students at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Efforts are being made to attract more graduates of science and engineering into the teaching professions, in spite of the more lucrative competing industrial jobs. Several outreach initiatives and teacher training programmes have been launched by the University of the West Indies that are already produced signs of improvements in the teaching and learning of science in the secondary schools. Such indicators are demonstrated in the increase numbers of students and their performances in the regional secondary school examinations and in the increase in enrolment at the university. In this paper, we propose workable solutions and investigate the dynamics involved for operationalizing them. Teachers are a very important human resource and academia and industry must collaborate on programs for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at the secondary and tertiary school levels in order to meet future science and engineering resource requirements in both the education and industrial sectors.