BACK TO TALKS

Consultations are set to resume on the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) bill next month in a bid to advance the legislation, which stalled earlier this year because of objections from certain groups.

Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon said the consultations would include the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), parents, and the Church.

“In that meeting, what we will do is we’ll have to go through the concerns because the JTA concerns actually look different than some of the other stakeholders’,” she said.

The bill, which has been in development for two decades, was passed in the Upper House in April. It seeks to regulate the teaching profession, including standards for licensing and disciplinary action. However, the JTA contends that the legislation undermines the autonomy of educators and places too much regulatory power in the hands of external authorities.

In May, the organisation demanded that the Government “fix the bill” before debate in the Lower House, warning against “political expediency”, which it said was, seemingly, forcing the Holness administration to pass a bill that was “not carefully thought out”.

Educators sidelined

A key concern of the JTA, which represents about 25,000 teachers, is that the proposed structure of the JTC board sidelines educators. Of the 31 seats, only six are allocated to the JTA.

Further, it expressed concerns that there is no provision to prevent a meeting of the council if a quorum of a minimum six JTA representatives is not met.

The union also argued that the licensing and registration process, which mandates teachers to register every five years and submit police records, would be overly bureaucratic.

Further, it says some functions of the JTC, which will demand additional resources and funding, will be duplicating roles of the Ministry of Education.

Morris Dixon, who was speaking yesterday at the quarterly press briefing of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC), said the Government would be aiming to reach consensus in the consultations.

“We don’t need to be trying to get the perfect bill. We need to be going forward. This is something that for over 20 years we’ve been working at, and we need to finish it and have a bill. We can always change later on and add new elements to it, but we’re gonna be open, and that bill is going to be a bill that has listened to everyone,” she said.

Her statement followed concerns expressed by ETOC Chairman Dr Adrian Stokes about the setbacks in passing the legislation.

“The timeline to implement that bill has been deliberately extended to factor additional consultations, which I think is welcomed and should be appreciated,” Stokes said.

He added: “Nonetheless, we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, so we’re not necessarily seeking a perfect bill. We need to make a start, and there will also be an opportunity to improve the bill going forward.”

Meanwhile, JTA President Mark Malabver told The Gleaner yesterday that his organisation remained steadfast in its stated objections to certain provisions but that he was looking forward to the consultations and was hopeful that they would be fruitful.

“It has been a contentious issue. We are clear in terms of what our concerns are, and we look forward to the dialogue in regards to those concerns, and, hopefully, we can strike a middle ground. We remain resolute in what we want – a bill for teachers, governed by teachers,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com