By Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter 
Gabbidon (left) and Clarke (right)
POTENTIAL JAMAICAN teacher recruits to the North American school system are set to face stringent requirements under new federal education laws for coming years.
By the end of the 2005-06 school year, federal education law says every teacher of core subjects from English to the arts must be highly qualified.
The law known as the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," calls for staff changes for schools with no improvement over six years.
All teachers or entrants to the system are now expected to have "a Bachelor's degree, a state licence or certification and a sound knowledge of their core subject", one newspaper report outlined.
Two years ago, the New York City Board of Education (NYCBOE) went on a massive recruitment drive in Jamaica to get specialist teachers (with experience) in areas like mathematics and science, raking in more than 300.
An additional 150 teachers were also recruited by agencies from the United Kingdom within the period.
But while those teachers already in the system may not be affected, later applicants will have to fall in line says former Jamaican councilwoman, Una Clarke.
"Most of the (early batches) teachers have already been immersed in the system and are already on contract so they would not be affected," she said.
Ms. Clarke explained that the early teachers would also have the benefit of assistance from the teachers union.
"There is always in-service training so they'd be allowed to take courses, and they are protected by the union," she said.
But "hopefuls" to the system will have to prove themselves to be accepted.
"It would be the new teachers to be recruited who would have a problem. They may have to meet the new regulations," she said.
The report explained that "middle school teachers" must have a college major in each subject they teach or pass a rigorous test in those subjects.
A middle school is one which stands, academically, between elementary school and senior high school (covering grades 6 to 8).
Still, Ms. Clarke said, the new provisions should not be daunting for Jamaican teachers.
DISADVANTAGED
"Any teacher trained in Jamaica would not be disadvantaged. It looks difficult on paper but it's not."
Explaining the requirements Ms. Clarke said, "For early childhood all that is required is 12 credits with not less than six in reading and six in children's literature. In Education it is having 'x' (a certain) number of courses to prove mastery in the subject.
"The (state) certification (requirement) would be for N-6 (grade 6), the degree would be grades 4-12 or high school and grades 4-8 or junior high school."
SUGGESTIONS
Meanwhile, there are no moves to implement similar requirements locally. "There have been suggestions that that is the way to go but there has not been any official pronouncement... but that is certainly where we would want to go," said Wentworth Gabbidon, president of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA). Performance evaluation instruments promised under the Government's Green Paper 2000 were expected to be standardised across the system by August 2001.
The documents were to be used as a part of the process of improving teacher performance and school effectiveness.
"We have been working with the Ministry on a teacher appraisal (instrument) which has not yet been completed," Mr. Gabbidon said. "It is almost at completion but will have to be evaluated by persons outside of the Education Ministry and the JTA. It will then have to be piloted and tested before implementation. Hopefully it will be ready by next January school term."
But the evaluation instruments will measure performance in terms of the requirements of the code of regulations, as well as quality of instruction, he said.
