Educators still not on board with contentious JTC Bill

WESTERN BUREAU:

LA SONJA Harrison, the newly installed president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), says the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill, which is under review by a joint select committee of Parliament, has contributed to some of the problems now plaguing the educational sector.

“The JTC bill in its current state continues to plague us. The multiplicity of reasons resulted in the exodus of teachers from this island nation to take up better remuneration packages in North America, Europe, Asia, and as far as the Middle East,” said Harrison. “It is further compounded by this noose around the teacher’s neck, should it be implemented in its current form.”

Linvern Wright, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), concurs with Harrison, noting that a sense of dread has engulfed principals, who are now scrambling with their boards to see how they can come up with a suitable formula to start the new school year on September 5.

According to Wright, it is difficult to provide an accurate figure for the number of teachers leaving the classroom, although reports suggest it could be upwards of 400. Based on statistics provided in the 2021 Economic and Social Survey, which was published in June, approximately 25,074 teachers were employed by the Government in 2021.

However, amid the concerns among educators, Education Minister Faval Williams has repeatedly downplayed their concerns, saying there was no data to suggest any cause for alarm. According to her, nearly 1,000 specialist teachers are slated to leave training institutions this year and will become available to fill vacancies created by migration.

However, Winston Smith, the immediate past president of the JTA, is not buying into Williams’ optimism and is urging the nation to be wary of the numbers she is highlighting, as it does not include teachers who may be on vacation but have not formally resigned.

“Those teachers may have said to their colleagues, ‘I am not coming back.’ The Ministry of Education cannot use that data to say teachers have left because legally they have not,” said Smith. “This is what I am trying to get the country to understand. Don’t be perturbed by what the minister says because the minister has to give you based on what is in front of them.”

“The timeline to look out for is January; for those who are on four-month vacation leave, they should return in January. Will they come back? I don’t know. Then we’ll have those who are on eight-month vacation leave, they would come back on the first of May, will they come back, I don’t know,” said Smith. “And that kind of uncertainty, where we have a serious challenge and we have to now put plans in place, organise ourselves to say, should worst-case scenario arise, how do we now treat with the problem?”

In what was her maiden address as the new JTA president, Harrison argued that in many other jurisdictions, teachers constitute the majority of those on the board responsible for the licensing body, which is not what is on offer in the JTC Bill.

“We continue to demand that 75 per cent of the board/council should comprise teachers, that’s 17 of the 23 proposed members,” said Harrison. “We will say with no apology, nothing for us, without us.

“If we want to truly emancipate education of some of its negative colonial history, let the minister [of education], who has no intention of manipulating the workings of the board, allow members at its first convened meeting to choose a chairman from among themselves,” added Harrison.