With the new academic year just days away numerous schools are scrambling to fill permanent and temporary teaching posts. But Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) President Anniona Jones says the influx of advertisements across various media do not reflect the full picture of the staffing needs.

According to Jones, while some vacancies have been caused by teachers embarking on well-earned vacation breaks, others are the result of educators leaving the system, some without proper notice.

“Some of these resignations do not reach the regional office, and sometimes we fill [vacancies] based on old resumes and not necessarily place all of it in an ad because not every school has the fiscal position to even run an ad. So what you’re seeing in the paper is the tip of the iceberg of the actual gaps in schools because many of us do not place in the national papers the advertisements for teachers. We use a lot of social media, word of mouth, our teachers’ groups, Jamaica Teachers’ Association groups, and so on. That’s what’s happening. So we really don’t have a good picture nationally on what is really happening on the ground,” Jones told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.