UNDER THE leadership of Mr. Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), some new thinking on education in Jamaica is beginning to emerge. For one thing, Mr. Reid has apparently persuaded the JTA to give in gracefully on the issue of the licensing and performance pay for teachers, albeit that he is demanding a quid pro quo from government. Mr. Reid, acknowledging that there are some 17,000 teachers in the public education system who don't have first degrees, wants a revolving fund of $500 million to be made available by the Government to help offset the costs of teacher upgrading. If teachers in the privately run early childhood sector, most of whom don't even have diplomas, are taken into account there would be over 20,000 teachers in the overall system who urgently need to enhance their professional qualifications.
It appears that Prime Minister Patterson sees merit in Mr. Reid's proposal and has instructed Mrs. Maxine Henry-Wilson, the Minister of Education, to explore the matter further with the JTA. He has pledged to find the money and, in fact, it could well be diverted from the $5 billion already captured from the National Housing Trust (NHT) for education.
The upgrading of teacher training is particularly important in early childhood education which now largely relies on so-called 'pre-trained' teachers - a euphemism for persons who really have no pedagogic skills. Between birth and age six is the most critical period in the emotional and intellectual development of a child, and unless teachers with the necessary training are available to guide and encourage progress at this stage the entire educational cycle is compromised. The need for well-trained teachers in the early childhood sector is especially urgent to compensate for the breakdown of Jamaican family life. Mr. Reid has also suggested the establishment of a National Parent-Teacher Association to help bridge the gap between home and school, and this is another step in the right direction.
Among the many things on its to-do list, this matter of teacher upgrading should be placed high within the hierarchy of needs by the Government.
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