JTA president-elect candidates want term extended

WESTERN BUREAU:

While praising the association’s presidential core system (the cycle from president-elect to immediate past president), the five aspirants for 2021-2022 Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president-elect are offering differing views as to whether or not the current one-year presidential term should be extended.

“To increase the presidential term has been something many people have advocated for, it is something that ought to be given consideration,” said president-elect aspirant Leighton Johnson, the principal of Muschett High School in Trelawny. “I believe the presidential term should be increased to at least three years.”

Speaking against the background of what happens in other organisations in terms of presidents serving up to five years at the helm, Johnson says the time has come for the JTA to look beyond the existing structure.

“When you look at many other organisations, the presidential term sometimes lasts between two and five years,” said Johnson, noting that it would create the scope for presidents to better achieve their various objectives.

Under the existing JTA presidential core, a president-elect basically serves three years in a leadership structure, one year each as president-elect, president, and immediate past president. The respective terms run almost identical to an academic school year.

According to Johnson, having just one year in the presidential chair makes it almost impossible to accomplish all the goals that a president would have laid out when campaigning for the president-elect position.

“That is why it is important for any president to ensure that the strategies and methods that he/she employed in the term are smart. The goals must be realistic, they must be achievable, [and] they must be time-bound,” said Johnson, speaking to the existing situation.

CAREFUL ANALYSIS

Anthony Kennedy, the lone classroom teacher among the five aspirants for the president-elect post, told The Gleaner that in the past, he too had advocated for the term of president to be expanded, but after careful analysis, he believes the existing system is adequate, as it provides continuity.

According to Kennedy, unlike in politics, where an incoming administration sometimes decides against continuing with an initiative started by the previous administration, in the JTA, a new president and his administration tend to continue with programmes inherited.

“Even though there are things in the association that need changing, that is one good thing that the association has under its belt, and that is continuity,” said Kennedy.

For La Sonja Harrison, the lone female candidate vying to become president-elect, she said such a change would require amending the association’s memorandum and articles of the association through the tabling and debating of a successful resolution.

“Making such a decision has to be subjected to a process and cannot be single-handedly influenced by any one individual,” said Harrison, the principal of St Faith Primary School in St Catherine. “I believe that our system of the presidential core has worked for us, and it continues to work. It provides training and succession planning.”

Timoy Shaw and Eaton McNamee, the two other president-elect contenders, have contrasting views on the existing arrangement as one supports it as is while the other wants to see modifications.

“The three-year presidential term is good for me,” said Shaw, principal of Highgate Primary and Junior High School in St Mary. “It can be difficult in implementing your manifesto, but the fact that you know what you are working with, you know that you have to make realistic goals and your manifesto should be realistic so that you can achieve them in a one-year term.”

McNamee, principal of the Broadleaf Primary School, says he thinks there should be an extension of the JTA’s presidential term and is in support of modifying the association’s articles of association.

“I support an expansion of the term, but it will require a resolution by the members to alter the articles of association of the JTA,” said McNamee, in noting that allowance should be in place to allow a president to achieve the goals he/she has laid out.

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