Church wants more seats on Teaching Council board

The Church is demanding a greater role on the board of the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC), arguing that denominational institutions make up more than 35 per cent of schools across the island.

The group, comprising members of the Ecumenical Education Committee (EEC) and the Jamaica Council of Churches, wants four of its members on the board and has rejected a proposal within the JTC bill mandating that one of them be a licensed teacher.

A call was also made for owners of trust schools to have two representatives on the board, against the backdrop that they, too, account for a large number of schools.

The position was registered during Thursday’s sitting of the Fayval Williams-chaired joint select committee currently reviewing the bill.

Additionally, concerns were raised by EEC member Ursula Khan, who asserted that Section 50 of the JTC bill is positioned to weaken the authority of school boards and diminish their functions.

Section 50 makes provision for disgruntled or other parties to make complaints against a teacher or instructor to the council.

“It gives us deep concern because there’s the possibility and high probability that, if this provision is enforced, it can usurp the functions of the school board in its role as employer,” Khan said.

“We insist that nothing in this bill should undermine or alter the existing authority of school boards … . We are not prepared to give up our rights of authority as employers with our employees when it comes to infractions of things that affect our schools,” she added.

PRACTICALITY QUESTIONED

Khan’s position was buttressed by Anglican Bishop of Jamaica Dr Howard Gregory, who questioned the extent of the council’s limits in terms of the responsibilities it has been assigned.

“Can it handle all of these complaints with all of the other things that it has to do? With the number of teachers in the profession, can it handle, realistically, every concern that may arise at the local level? I just wonder whether we are setting up ourselves [for something] that cannot work,” Gregory said.

But committee member Senator Lambert Brown, a trade unionist, clarified that the section offers the avenue for complaint as an option, pointing out that a person “may” make a complaint, in writing, in the prescribed manner, to the council, setting out the details of the teacher’s alleged contravention.

Furthermore, Senator Kavan Gayle said that the recording of the infraction would be first established by reporting to the council “as a safety net”.

Gayle, who is also a trade unionist, explained that the complaint would then go to the school’s board and, if the matter cannot be dealt with at that level, it would go back to the council.

Meanwhile, Williams said that an increase in the representation of the Church on the JTC board would result in a tipping of the scale.

She said that, except for one government representative, school boards are made up of members appointed by owners.

“At the board level at the school, you have an overweighting in terms of what you can do. To want increased membership at the council level as well, it would just seem to tip the scale a little bit too much,” the education minister said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com