SHAKE-UP FOR SCHOOL BOARDS - Independent directors to get pay in new pilot; ministry to target skills, performance

In a push to strengthen governance across Jamaica’s school system, the Ministry of Education is moving to recruit board members based on schools’ specific needs and introduce payment for independent directors through a pilot programme.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Dr Adrian Stokes, chairman of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee, said the aim is to improve the composition, effectiveness, and performance of school boards.

Stokes said the ministry intends to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to board appointments, ensuring that schools recruit individuals whose skills and expertise address their particular deficiencies.

“First, we’re seeking to recruit board members with competencies more aligned to each school’s deficiencies. We’re not just trying to have or recruit people for recruitment’s sake, but each school has particular needs, and, therefore, we have to ensure that the skill sets that are required in the school are the ones that are being promoted,” he said.

In what he described as a new initiative, Stokes announced that the ministry and the National Council on Education had launched a pilot programme to pay fees to independent school board directors in selected institutions.

“The second thing that we’re doing, and this is very important, it is new, is to introduce the payment of fees for independent board directors. I am pleased to report that the Ministry (of Education) and the National Council on Education have launched a pilot programme to pay fees to board directors in selected schools,” he said.

TARGET

The pilot will target underperforming schools as well as institutions included in the National School Learning initiative.

Among the measures to be assessed are the regularity of board meetings, the accuracy of meeting minutes, and the quality of deliberations among board members.

Stokes also revealed that 47 per cent of the 365 recommendations from the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission report have now been implemented.

He said that this was a four-percentage-point increase from the 43 per cent implementation rate shared in July.

According to him, 18 additional initiatives were fully implemented, bringing the total number of fully implemented recommendations to 166, while gains were noted across governance, finance, infrastructure, and early childhood education.

“Progress during the period was driven mainly by gains in governance, up 900 basis points or nine percentage points; gains in early childhood, up 11 percentage points; infrastructure up nine percentage points. These are the pillars that led to the overall increase in progress for the reporting period.”

He revealed, however, that one initiative still lags.

“So that initiative relates to the Early Childhood Commission doing their annual assessment on young children for learning challenges. They are, in fact, carrying out higher-order tertiary screening on these kids, and I have been reliably informed that by the time of our next report, the commission should be right back on track.”

STRENGTHENING THE PROFESSION

ETOC is also seeking to strengthen the talent pipeline into the teaching profession by attracting university students to teaching by providing tuition support and guaranteed employment.

“The ministry is also strengthening teaching capacity through continuous professional development and creating clearer opportunities for professional growth by linking licence renewal or registration to ongoing training. These are very, very commendable outcomes for the period,” Stokes said.

Nearly a year after Hurricane Melissa damaged 682 public schools, the ETOC chairman noted that renovations and rebuilding continue.

“Now ETOC urges the ministry and its agencies to work in close coordination and draw on additional capacity where necessary so that schools can be restored as quickly as possible without compromising rigorous project governance and accountability. That’s very important. We want the speed, we want the schools to be rehabilitated, we want the ministry to be agile. All of the capacity may not necessarily reside in one agency, but we need to be smart enough to leverage capacity across the country, and, indeed, to import the capacity if necessary. We must get back our schools to an appropriate learning environment for our kids.”

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com