Lawmakers mull homeschooling provisions under JTC bill
Published:Friday | February 24, 2023 | 1:20 AMErica Virtue/Senior Gleaner Writer
Legislators agreed that if parents are not the teachers, then anyone engaged to deliver lessons under homeschooling arrangements must be a trained teacher, who is registered and licensed, as the Joint Select Committee reviewing the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill continued its deliberations on Thursday.
Copies of the engaged teacher’s qualifications, identity information and character recommendation must also be presented to the relevant body.
A file is then to be created for each child being homeschooled, who must also be registered.
Dr Winsome Gordon, CEO of the Jamaica Teaching Council, noted that this policy was already in place after committee members question how such matters would be handled under the act.
Currently, the condition of homeschooling requires parents to be two educational levels ahead of the child or children they teach. However, most parents who register their children for homeschooling have at least a first degree. Children are allowed attachment to a school, in the event of reintegration, and others get assistance with respect to lesson planning.
Committee member Robert Miller sought to find out how the legislation would treat with a parent who is not a trained educator but who decides to teach their children.
He was advised that where parents are not teachers, the teachers must be known to the ministry.
Member Floyd Green said, the current system has worked and that caution should be exercised if changes are to be made.
“Anybody who is now going to utilise the title ‘teacher’, that has a specific meaning under this legislation. So if the parent is going to bring in a teacher, then that person would have to be a teacher as defined by our laws. That is already covered. I would not try to impose any other special conditions on what already exists for those persons who determine that, in the best interest of their child, they will provide homeschooling,” he said.
Natalie Campbell Rodriques, sought clarity on whether a homeschooling parent who is a trained teacher would be governed by the act.
“What if that trained teacher chooses not to register, are they governed by the law?” she asked.
“If you call yourself a teacher ... ,” committee chair Education Minister Fayval Williams began to respond before Campbell Rodriques expounded.
“No, they don’t use the title teacher, but they are trained. They graduated from teacher’s college, they [are] just a parent teaching their own child. I just want to be sure that we are not saying that person has to go through the process and is governed by this … ,” she said.
“Based on my understanding, in this situation, the parent, despite being a teacher, would be teaching his or her own child,” said Tova Hamilton responded.
Kavan Gayle said that in the strict definition, a person with teacher training who is not licensed and registered would not be considered a teacher.
Campbell Rodriques suggested that the legislation make this very clear, she was still uncertain as to how such a person would be treated even if they were licensed and registered.
Gordon, the JTC CEO, again clarified.
“I think it is clear that if you are teaching your own child, the act does not apply to you as a teacher. ... If a trained, registered, licensed teacher is teaching his or her own child, it is within that context of any parent teaching a child. I don’t think we need to spell that out in the legislation,” she stated.
Where such a parent teaches other children, the parent’s professional qualification would, however, come under scrutiny.