Reid -Andrew
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Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
RUEL REID, president-elect of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), fears that under the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), Jamaican workers will lose job opportunities to workers from other CARICOM countries whom, he stressed, enjoyed greater access to tertiary education.
"We are rushing to sign off on the CSME but one of my greatest fears about this is that we are putting our Jamaican workers at a serious disadvantage," Mr. Reid told The Gleaner earlier this week, during the JTA's 40th annual general meeting held at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios. "In other societies such as Barbados and Trinidad, where they have made education far more accessible and available, what (we) are going to do is to transfer jobs from Jamaicans to other Carib-bean nationals," he warned.
FREE MOVEMENT
Effective next year, the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), starting with Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, will gradually remove trade and other economic restrictions to permit the free cross-border movement of goods, services, capital and skilled labour.
Proponents of the CSME counter criticisms from persons like Mr. Reid by arguing that market forces will efficiently allocate resources across the CSME.
GET JAMAICAN JOBS
However, the JTA official pointed out that students from Barbados receive free tertiary education and are far more trained "so they can come to Jamaica and get the Jamaican jobs because of the agreement to allow free movement of skilled persons. We should have got our education system right before we entertained that situation," Reid stated.
The president-elect, a former master teacher at Munro College in St. Elizabeth, said he felt honoured that fellow teachers elected him to the high office in their association.
The CSME apart, Mr. Reid raised other issues that he plans to address as part of the JTA's current administration and during his presidency which commences in August 2005. He lists among his objectives: the promotion of the advancement of early childhood education; the introduction of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) school-based assessments for mathematics and English; and wage negotiations which will fall due in the period running up to the next general election.
