PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
LEFT: Last year Mico, like other colleges, graduated a new batch of teachers into the
classroom. Teachers' colleges will be called on to recruit more students to fill the upcoming vacanies with the building of new schools by 2008. RIGHT: Senator Noel Monteith, State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture.
Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
MORE TEACHERS will be needed in the education system to fill the more than 400,000 new school spaces that will be created for primary and high schools, says Senator Noel Monteith, State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture.
Last Friday, during his contribution to the State of the Nation Debate in the Senate, Senator Monteith said a total of 428,941 new schools spaces will be required to satisfy the space needs at the primary and secondary level, based on the parameters outlined by the Task Force on Education.
He also noted that 14,000 new school spaces will be provided by September 2007.
"We will definitely need more teachers, because if you have smaller classes, then we will need more teachers to fill the gap," Senator Monteith told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday. He was, however unable to give the exact number of teachers that will be needed.
CREATION OF NEW SPACES
But Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) said a minimum of 25 per cent of the current 25,000 teachers will be needed. This, represents 6,250 teachers.
Senator Monteith said that the creation of the new spaces is achievable in the long run. "(But) It will not happen overnight, it will take time, but we are well under way," he said.
In 2000, there was a mass exodus of teachers leaving the classroom to the United States of America and the United Kingdom in search of 'greener pastures'.
Mr. Reid told The Sunday Gleaner that the ministry should be able to recruit enough teachers to fill the vacancies that will arise from the creation of the new school spaces, because there is an excess supply of teachers who are unemployed.
"We need to continue to upgrade our teachers to ensure that they are able to deliver quality education," he said.
Senator Monteith told The Sunday Gleaner that a strategic policy was being developed for the tertiary system. This policy, he said would include quality training for teachers and would also focus on the numbers of teachers to be trained.
The creation of the new spaces is expected to reduce overcrowding in schools. Currently, an average class size is 45 in the high schools and 35 in primary schools.
The new spaces would see 25 students in the high schools and 30 students per class in the primary schools.
The Education State Minister noted that the transformation of the education
system is not easy or cheap, because every change requires money.
HOLDING GOVERNMENT TO ACTION
The transformation team had recommended that it would take $52 billion per year to transform the education system.
Last year, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced that $5 billion would be transferred from the National Housing Trust (NHT) to assist with the transformation of the education system.
Dorrett Campbell, director of communications in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, gave a breakdown of how the $5 billion was to be spent. She noted that $3.5 billion would be spent on the repair of schools, upgrading of facilities, and the
creation of additional school spaces, among other things. The additional $1.5 billion would be spent on programme literacy and diagnostic processes.
Meanwhile Mr. Reid applauded the Ministry of Education on its decision to abolish the shift system by 2008.
"We are anxious to have the (shift
system) abolished, so we are going to hold the Government to that pronouncement because too often announcements are made and nothing is done," he said.
