Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
MORE THAN 1,000 public school teachers, who studied without taking leave of absence from the classroom, will be reimbursed 50 per cent of their tuition fees, according to Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA).
The refund of tuition fees for teachers came out of the JTA's 2002 wages and fringe benefits negotiations.
The agreement was fine-tuned during a meeting between the JTA and the Government recently, and a total of $105 million is available to be paid out to teachers.
"This is one of the most monumental pieces of benefit that the teachers have recovered," said Mr. Reid.
The JTA president told The Gleaner yesterday that the first set of payments will be made out by March 31.
He noted that the benefit is well deserved by teachers, as they are among the best educated and are required to constantly upgrade their skills.
He said the upgrading of teachers was one of the recommendations made by the task force report on education.
Mr. Reid said the new benefit is in keeping with international human resource practices through which employers give assistance to the professional development of their employees.
The JTA boss said in order to benefit from the reimbursement, teachers would have had to start their programme of study the summer of 2003. A ceiling for $500,000 is set for all programmes.
