The education sector could further suffer from the mass migration of teachers in the upcoming school year.

That’s according to president of the Jamaica Teachers Association, Lasonja Harrison.

The revelation follows the massive increase in the salaries for the political directorate announced by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke recently.

This, despite ongoing salary issues in the education sector and other segments of the public sector.

There has been heavy public backlash from citizens to the salary adjustments.

The opposition People’s National Party, (PNP), has objected to the massive salary increase, stating that government needs to address the issues with civil servant salaries satisfactorily, first.

Opposition leader Mark Golding says he will only accept 20% of his increase, until issues with the civil servant salaries have been dealt with.

Speaking on Irie Fm’s Africa Forum on Sunday, the JTA president noted that the teachers are upset over the increase granted to the political directorate.

She said she has received information which indicates that the number of teachers planning to leave following the announcement is at a crisis level.

She questioned the intentions of the government in relation to education.

Mrs Harrison asked what is being done to retain and attract teachers to the sector.

She argued that there is a vast number of teachers within the private sector who could easily solve the teacher shortage in the classroom.