Brown Burke urges teachers to vote PNP to help ‘rescue Jamaica’
Published:Thursday | July 17, 2025 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Dr Angela Brown Burke, the chairman of the People’s National Party (PNP), is appealing to the nation’s teachers to vote for her party, saying that in doing so, they will be helping to “rescue Jamaica” from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
According to Brown Burke, a vote for the PNP is a vote for restored dignity as well as improved benefits for the country’s educators.
“Teachers get ready. Get ready. Whenever they call it [the general election], I ask all our teachers to step forward and help us rescue Jamaica and ensure a better life for all of us,” said Brown Burke, who was speaking at the PNP Women’s Movement Rally, which was held at Manning’s School in Westmoreland, on Sunday.
Brown Burke promised that, under a PNP government led by Mark Golding, teachers would receive enhanced access to National Housing Trust (NHT) loans and priority housing allocations under the party’s proposed 50,000-unit housing plan.
“Get ready, put yourself in place, because you are first in line for those houses. That is what Comrade Golding is promising you,” she stated.
Brown Burke also pledged that a future PNP administration would reduce the burden of student loan repayment for teachers and reinstate the motor vehicle concession that was previously available to them, which she said was revoked under the JLP Government.
“We are going to make sure that the motor vehicle concession that they [the JLP administration] took away is restored and improved, based on your years of service,” she said. “Anything they take away, we are going to bring it back and restore it better than before.”
Additionally, she said teachers would benefit from tax exemptions on laptops and tablets, and free Internet access through government-negotiated telecommunications packages.
“I am asking you to do one simple thing. When you see the teachers out there, have a conversation with them. Remind them of what the PNP is going to do for them in government,” Brown Burke urged party workers and supporters.
She encouraged teachers to engage with PNP canvassers, provide their contact information, and back party president Mark Golding, who she described as a man with “clean hands and a clean heart”.
Brown Burke, a former educator, highlighted the PNP’s historical support for teachers, citing the passage of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act under Michael Manley’s leadership in 1975 as a landmark move that was taken to ensure that all women and men working in the same profession received equal pay.