PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson has agreed in principle to the creation of a $500 million revolving loan fund to upgrade the skills of educators in exchange for the Jamaica Teachers' Association's (JTA) cooperation with Government's plan to license teachers.
The Prime Minister charged Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, Maxine Henry-Wilson, with the responsibility for examining the proposal put forward by the JTA during his absence from the island this week.
Mr. Patterson will be heading to New York today for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
"While I am away, start the dialogue, and when I come back we must find the money," he told Mrs. Henry-Wilson, during what was his final presentation to a People's National Party (PNP) conference in the capacity of party president and also prime minister. The PNP's 67th annual conference concluded yesterday at the National Arena.
The JTA President, Ruel Reid, yesterday said he was pleased with the Prime Minister's response. "I am very pleased that he has responded so quickly and positively because I really felt passionately that complementing a performance management system must be in facilitation of your human resource development." Mr. Reid noted that while "we are not opposed to a performance management system, we can't have a situation where 17,000 teachers are not yet upgraded to a degree and they must bear the full burden of the upgrading. The system must help and facilitate their development and I am very pleased that he has recognised that and we look forward to the discussion with the Minister of Education ..."
The JTA president, in his public address on Sunday to commemorate the start of the new school year, said his association was not opposed to systems of accountability, but "it must be used for development and not punishment or victimisation".
Mr. Reid, in the same public address, had said he wanted the Government to implement the $500 million fund to "professionalise teachers" through training that would allow them to upgrade their diplomas to degrees.
