AFTER DELAYS, considerable agitation by experts in the field and some degree of opposition by the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), the Minister of Education has announced the start of a pilot project to test the efficacy of performance pay for teachers.
The pilot will include areas 1 and 5 covering Kingston and St. Andrew, Manchester and St. Elizabeth. It will be based on an originating document which has been the subject of discussion by the stakeholders involved. The core concept of the plan is that those teachers who best achieve agreed criteria in various aspects of the education process will be rewarded with extra pay and, presumably, those who consistently fail will be removed from the system.
Recent Gleaner Editors' Forums attended by principals and chairpersons of school boards have reflected almost unanimous concern about how difficult it is, under the present system, to remove sub-standard teachers who are undisciplined, lack intellectual curiosity and are mere time servers rather than persons with a true vocation for teaching. These persons are in sufficient numbers to give a bad name to the majority of hard-working teachers who are dedicated to their calling and who perform well under difficult circumstances.
Under the proposed incentive programme, pedagogic skills per se are not the only consideration. There will be points earned for extra-curricular activities, professional enhancement, administrative cooperation and a general and genuine interest of teachers in the welfare of their charges. In the beginning, participation in the scheme will be voluntary but we do not think that it will ultimately have much impact unless made compulsory. This in turn could well mandate a licensing system for the profession as the legal basis in which enforcement of the incentive criteria is rooted.
This is obviously a cause of concern for the JTA which has not yet enthusiastically endorsed the plan. The JTA is a powerful trade union so the Minister of Education is no doubt working behind the scenes to get the leadership on board.
Some schools, such as Campion College which perform well in the CXC exams, already operate an incentive scheme for its teachers. This is obviously working and we trust that it will reinforce the Minister's determination to make the plan work. We support her comment at the launching that incentive pay for teachers is 'something whose time has come'.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
