Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
Veleta Barnett (second right) at the reading lab with grade five students of the Hagley Park Prep. school. The school is being run by the Hagley Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in St. Andrew. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
JAMAICA TEACHERS' Association (JTA) president Ruel Reid believes that the Government should establish a special education fund to assist with the transformation of the education system.
"We are recommending that we take the education tax out of the Consolidated Fund and put it in an education transformation trust, which would be dedicated to the transformation process," Mr. Reid suggested.
The Task Force on Education was appointed by the Prime Minister in January of 2004 and the report - embodying several sweeping recommendations - was made public in December of the same year.
Some of the recommendations made by the 14-member task force which was led by Dr. Rae Davis, president of the University of Technology included, licensing of teachers, the increase of students' contact hours in schools, and literacy and grade level remediation.
"I am further suggesting that we reduce the contribution to the National Housing Trust (NHT) to 1.5 per cent of gross salary instead of two per cent and put the 0.5 per cent toward the education trust fund," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
The task force report said it would take $52 billion each year to transform the education system.
Last April, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced that the NHT was to make a $5 billion injection into the Government's programme to revolutionise the education sector.
But Mr. Reid said this one-off payment was far from enough to assist with the process.
"We are not going to sit by on the back burner," he said. "While we clearly recognise the importance of a strategic crime plan, we recognise that any such plan must include a strategic plan for the education system."
Mr. Reid suggested that pension for retired teachers be indexed to the current salary of practising teachers, as was done with the Prime Minister's pension. He also suggested that the spouse and orphans of deceased teachers qualify for a portion of the pension of the deceased.
According to Reid, the current pension for retired teachers is two thirds of their last salary. "And this does not move with inflation and therefore, a pensioner will see a significant fall in his or her purchasing power."
