Coke-Lloyd

Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer

If the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) had its way, Jamaican teachers would be speedily placed in a pay-for-performance scheme as one strategy to improve the quality of students leaving the education system.

This proposal, following closely on one calling for targeted recruitment of foreign teachers, where necessary, is part of what the JEF sees as an urgent call to action to improve the quality of teaching in Jamaica and, ultimately, the quality of employees entering the workforce.

"We need to do a quick assessment of the teachers who are in the system - those who are competent and are doing very well - and look at the pay scales with a view to introducing a pay-for-performance system. Those, on the other hand, who are not able to carry out the job properly need to be replaced," Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, executive director of JEF, tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Among other measures, she says, JEF is recommending that a systematic assessment (including psychometric testing) be done of teachers at the early childhood level to determine their suitability for that level of teaching; a reassessment of the GSAT examination for children leaving the primary level; and the introduction of a comprehensive school-feeding programme.

She urges as well that there should be a review of the quality of preparation at teachers' colleges to ensure the best possible graduates entering the classroom.

Foreign teachers

Alongside all those measures, she says JEF remained firm in its view that Jamaica should not resist the recruitment of specialist foreign teachers where necessary.

Recently, when Coke-Lloyd made that recommendation it elicited strong reactions - negative and positive.

The Gleaner, in its editorial of July 24, described the proposal to recruit foreign teachers as "unhelpful".

Coke-Lloyd has taken issue with that characterisation, arguing that, far from being unhelpful, it was exactly what was required in some specific circumstances.

"We cannot train them (specialist teachers) in the short term, so we are going to have to replace them by recruiting from overseas, and overseas does not simply mean the United Kingdom; it does not mean the United States," she argues, pointing as well to Caribbean Community countries and others in Asia and Africa.

Retired teachers wooed

At the same time, she contended, Jamaica should not shun the option of recruiting from First-World countries, highlighting as an example, the recruitment of police personnel from the United Kingdom to assist their local counterparts.

Already, she reveals, JEF has received several expressions of interest from retired teachers based in the United States to teach in Jamaica, for no more than paid accommodation and transportation.

Coke-Lloyd argues that the students should be regarded as the primary customers of the education system, and by extension, their parents and employers; and if the customers are not satisfied, the system is failing them.

Noel Monteith, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, in a cautious response, also has endorsed the concept of limited recruitment of foreign teachers where demand dictates.

Many local teachers are as competent as their counterparts anywhere in the world, he asserts, so much so that several First-World countries were constantly recruiting them. It would, therefore, be a logical response to recruit from overseas, he acknowledges.

Monteith concedes that Jamaica will have to find a way to substantially increase pay for teachers if it hopes to retain the most competent.

In this regard, Coke-Lloyd is suggesting that the compensation challenge could be addressed, partially, by a number of public-private sector initiatives, including properly organised endowment funds, as is done in some other countries.