By Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor
Dr. Polly Bowes-Howell, principal of Stony Hill Primary and Junior High.
DESPITE HAVING a large number of highly-trained teachers available, school principals are bemoaning the fact that there are currently not enough jobs in the system to accommodate many of them.
Speaking at The Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's North Street offices in downtown Kingston yesterday, the principals, representing 12 schools from across the island, say the problem is further compounded by schools being forced to keep non-performing teachers in the system, sometimes indefinitely.
"In the past three or so years I have seen some excellent teachers coming out of the teachers' colleges," said Clement Radcliffe, principal of Glenmuir High School in Clarendon. "You would be amazed at the quality teachers out there who have to be moving from school to school because they are unable to hold down a permanent job. They are forced to take temporary positions in these schools because there are not many full time jobs that are available."
Speaking generally, Mr. Radcliffe said the problem would be lessened if school administrators had the power to rid their institutions of mediocre teachers. "The schools are forced to keep teachers who are not performing so there is hardly, if any space, to bring in one of those
highly-trained teachers who are literally begging to get in," he pointed
out.
The principals also note that if they were to recommend the firing of a non-performing
teacher to the Ministry of Education, the system was so bureaucratic and 'clogged'
that the matter would be all but futile.
"If you read the Education Code... the regulations... you will see how
difficult it is to fire an incompetent teacher," explained Radley Reid,
principal of Campion College in St. Andrew "The school board, with the
blessings of the principals, does the hiring but as far as firing goes, that
is a very complicated matter."
PRINCIPALS NEED MORE POWER
Dr. Ralph Thompson, a member of the National Council on Education, said it
was absurd that school principals did not have the power to rid their schools
of teachers who were not contributing to the welfare of students. "If you
have the power to hire then you should have the power to fire also," he
said. "It would seem as if nobody has any authority to do anything anymore.
It's the Ministry that clogs up the system... I have seen where school boards
and principals have taken decisions and the Ministry steps in and overrides
it... that is absurd and shouldn't be allowed to happen."
Not everyone, however, agreed that it was next to impossible to get rid of
a non-performing teacher. "It is not very easy to get rid of a teacher
but it is possible," said Byron Farquharson, principal of Mandeville Primary
and Junior High.
"This is why due process must be allowed to take its course." Asked
to elaborate, he continued: "If a teacher has completed a year and after
that year the performance is not satisfactory then that teacher can be dismissed
quite easily. The problem comes in if it goes over a year... then it is a case
of keeping proper records... document every meeting you have had with that teacher
regarding problems you are having. If and when you have to take that teacher
in front of the school board, it should be a case where you have exhausted all
possible means."
TOO MANY QUALIFIED TEACHERS
Dr. Polly Bowes-Howell, principal of Stony Hill Primary and Junior High School,
said with all of the problems being experienced by the education sector "the
nation has never had so many qualified teachers in the system at any given time."
The principals were, however, split on whether there were adequate training
programmes available to assist teachers in their development, with most agreeing
that the Education Ministry had invested a lot in this area.
Dave Myrie, principal of Wolmer's Boys School, was one of the dissenting voices.
"I wouldn't say there is a vibrant training programme in place for teachers,"
he said. "I would like to know that if I am going to make a decision as
to whether a teacher is the right person to keep in a job I would have had a
vibrant system in place where I could reasonably make that assessment."
