JAPVP denies involvement in recruiting of overseas teachers

WESTERN BUREAU:

Education Minister Fayval Williams says the move to recruit foreign teachers was based on recommendations from principals, but at least one principal association is claiming ignorance to that claim.

“I am not aware of principals making that request, but it is very possible that principals, in speaking with the minister one-to-one, may have said that to her,” said Jennifer Williams, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice-Principals (JAPVP).

“No, we have not,” said the JAPVP president when asked if the association had made any such request of the Ministry of Education.

According to the president, who is the principal of the Queens School, the education minister enjoys a very good relationship with principals, and the recommendation she spoke of may have been made during casual conversations and not in a formal setting.

Nevertheless, she stated that teachers coming to Jamaica from other countries is nothing new, pointing out that teachers from Cuba and Ghana, especially those with specialist skills, have been coming to Jamaica to teach in local classrooms for some time.

“I think the concern is the package that is being offered. We hope there is not a package that is being offered to them that we are not aware of,” said the JAPVP president. “We are hoping that if and when they come, they will get the same salary and benefits as we are getting.”

No plans to inundate sector

The JAPVP president also stated that she was not immediately aware of any of her members rebelling against the plans to recruit overseas teachers.

“We hope that there are no underlying arrangements that are being offered to them and not to our teachers because the real issue is the salary of teachers and the resources in delivering their lessons to their students,” she said.

While addressing delegates at the 60th annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) in Trelawny yesterday, the education minister said the Government has no plans to inundate the education sector with foreign teachers.

“So it’s not as if we are going to inundate the sector. Currently, we do have foreign teachers from other countries in the system. We have Cuban teachers, and it’s not just Spanish that they teach,” the minister said.

She further argued that she was quite aware of the ministry’s need to fill vacancies from within.

“When we look at the new teachers coming into the system, there are gaps in subject areas. We went around, spoke to principals about the option, and they expressed an interest in having such an option available to them,” she said.

Williams went on to describe the importation of additional foreign teachers as a surgical approach to the immediate needs of the education sector.

“We are not inundating the sector as the Opposition is making it out to be. That’s not what we are doing. It’s more of a surgical insertion for those gaps I know we need to fill from our own system, but it’s going to take some time to do,” she said.

Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the education ministry, confirmed that a planned meeting with the ambassadors from Ghana and The Philippines went well, and it is now up to teachers from those countries to upload their résumés to the ministry’s portal to which school administrators have access.

“The recruitment and selections are done by schools, so what we will do is provide an opportunity through these countries for our principals to see others that they can consider for employment. They will make the final decision, not the Ministry of Education,” said Troupe. “We have a job bank platform that we have established for our local schools. We will utilise that framework for persons to indicate, and that is where the principals will go to look at the people that are making themselves available and why.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com