Samuda open to JTA presence on transformation commission
Published:Thursday | August 27, 2020 | 12:18 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Education Minister Karl Samuda says he will be making representation to Prime Minister Andrew Holness to have a member of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) appointed to the Professor Orlando Patterson-chaired Commission on Education Transformation.
“I understand your concern, and I will certainly take it up at the appropriate level,” Samuda told teachers during the JTA’s 56th annual conference in Montego Bay, St James, last week.
Samuda saluted the teachers, describing them as being among the nation’s finest, with Jamaica’s development in their hands.
“There is no finer set of professionals in the country than the teaching fraternity. It is in your hands that the real development of Jamaica begins, and so if you get it right from the start, it makes the job much easier as we go forward,” said Samuda. “What you do today impacts on the lives of the children that you teach right through their lives.”
On July 22, Holness named a 14-member high-level Commission on Education Transformation to seek to better understand the educational needs of the sector.
However, while embracing the establishment of the commission, Owen Speid, immediate past present of the JTA, questioned the abilities of some of the persons named to the body, some of whom were long retired while no JTA representative had been included.
“We see that there are five professors and three principals. Two of them are no longer in the system at all named here, and so we have not seen enough representation at the various levels of the education spectrum for us to be comfortable,” Speid told The Gleaner last week.
The commission will be conducting a comprehensive review and assessment of Jamaica’s education system, including its structure and operations. It will also recommend changes to bring greater efficiency to the sector.
The commission is expected to produce its report by the end of the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Prior to this, the last major assessment of the education system was undertaken was the 2004 Task Force on Educational Reform, chaired by Dr Rae Davis.