Not stealing Jamaican teachers

Teacher recruitment agency Foreign Academic and Cultural Exchange Services allows participating teachers to stay up to five years on the cultural exchange programme before returning to their home country. A United States teacher recruitment agency is making it known that, unlike its counterparts, it is not in the business of draining the Jamaican education system of its finest educators, even as the island struggles to keep teachers in its classrooms. Foreign Academic and Cultural Exchange Services (FACES), a J-1 cultural exchange programme based in South Carolina, said instead its mission is to give the educators international exposure, new teaching techniques and technology-driven skills they can implement when they return to their home country after three to five years. The agency’s position comes at a time when Jamaican schools are grappling with teacher shortages and migration, particularly in specialised subject areas. Recent data from the Ministry of Education revealed that 1,185 teachers resigned between September 2024 and August 2025. The figures reflect a decline in teacher resignations compared to 1,517 the previous year. The staffing challenge mainly arises from global demand for teachers. While some programmes create the opportunity for teachers to reside permanently in their host country, FACES Communication Director Alexandra Patrascu said it is not in the business of stealing teachers. “We’ve heard of this interpretation, and we’ve heard of these types of programmes that, to be honest with you, they’re hurting us as sponsors as well. There are many ways that a teacher can stay here [in the United States] after the five years, but it’s not through our programme. Our cultural exchange programme that we sponsor clearly states that a teacher can stay up to five years, and they need to return for at least two years to their country and then they can come back for five years,” said Patrascu. “There are other programmes that sponsor more pathways towards being a citizen and being here permanently. Those programmes hurt our programme, because the whole purpose of the cultural exchange is not there anymore if somebody’s coming here to stay. Our programme, our J-1 programme, the goal behind it is to bring back the teachers in Jamaica with the US experience, with more technology experience, and with a global teaching experience. The goal is not to steal teachers from Jamaica. We want, and we demand that our Jamaican teachers return to their country because if they don’t, they’re hurting our programme,” she told the Jamaica Observer. Patrascu said since its establishment in 1987, the agency has recruited more than 2,000 educators from across the globe. Of that number, approximately 60 teachers have been from Jamaica. She said the agency particularly loves to work with Jamaican teachers because of their ability to control a classroom, their knowledge of the curriculum and their positive spirits, but more than anything, they want the educators to go back and apply what they learned in the local education system. She pointed to a Jamaican Spanish teacher who did just that, as proof that the programme is effective in building the local education system. “I had this amazing Spanish teacher join our programme that I was training, and she went back to Jamaica, and now she works in her school. I keep in touch with her from now and then, and she keeps on saying, ‘I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from the programme in the United States. I was able to make my classroom so much better when I returned due to the things that I’ve learned in South Carolina.’ That makes my heart very proud,” said Patrascu. She added that she is grateful to every participant who came on the programme and applied what they learned in their local schools, stressing the need to protect and enrich education systems across the country. “If they [educators] don’t go back, they hurt us, they hurt the Jamaican population, and they hurt the Jamaican Government. That’s not something that we want,” said Patrascu, urging educators to give back to their country.