- Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Professor Barry Chevannes... "the culture of violence and aggression, like bacteria, have become the source of an epidemic." At left, delegates in attendance at the Jamaica Teachers' Association's 39th annual conference, Ocho Rios, St. Ann, last week.
Damion Mitchell, Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Teachers' Association (JTA) has shifted into what it calls modernisation mode as it seeks to make itself more relevant in representing the cause of teachers and their effectiveness in the classroom.
In its 2003-2006 strategic plan prepared by Caribbean Applied Technology Centre Ltd which was presented to delegates at the 39th annual conference at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, last week, it was acknowledged that the association was facing challenging times.
"The JTA is confronted with the twin challenges of having to modernise itself and at the same time find new ways to promote the teaching profession as the main contributor to the development of the county's knowledge pool," the report said.
Newly installed JTA president, Wentworth Gabbidon, pointed to the range of issues that confront the classroom teacher.
In his acceptance speech after being inducted he said although inadequate furniture and serious overcrowding in schools were major concerns for his association, there was an overwhelming need to address the culture of coarseness and crudity now pervading the society.
"It is the challenge of all stakeholders in the education sector, the church and all well-thinking Jamaicans to join hands immediately towards a more humane society where moral values are ideal," he said.
BASIC PRINCIPLES
According to the president, responsible adults should transmit basic principles to the children. But importantly, he said, adults, including teachers must lead by example. "The truth is that we were not giving enough to education to create (exemplary) characters in our children," the JTA boss lamented.
Against this background, he announced a national mentorship programme for new teachers and a leadership-training programme for young JTA members as the two key components of his manifesto. However, he said, the level of training offered by teachers' colleges must be improved and proposed a four-year Bachelor's degree programme, incorporating a two-year programme on general teacher training and the remaining period for specialisation courses.
At the same time, the president also called for a level of remuneration for teachers that would "stem the flow to foreign lands".
'CALL A SPADE A SPADE'
But Education Minister, Maxine Henry Wilson, said, with 95 per cent of the Ministry's $23 billion budget going towards wages and salaries within the sector, one had to 'call a spade a spade'. She explained that while teachers deserved better pay, the Government could not afford to pay teachers more than they are currently being offered.
Mr. Gabbidon also bemoaned the sub-standard conditions in which teachers had to work including classes with as many as 60 students to one teacher. Therefore, as far as he was concerned, the matter of performance-based pay was not the main issue as appraisal systems were not even at minimum standards.
Advocating for a pupil/teacher ratio of one (teacher) to 15 (students) at the early childhood level, one to 25 at the primary level and one to 20 at the secondary level, he said, "the Ministry of Education must take a serious look at the shift system to determine whether it has contributed to the breakdown of discipline among students."
Patrick Smith, the JTA's Senior Secretary of School Safety and Security in his annual report noted too that there was an unacceptable level of violence in schools. Statistics show that for the last school year, there were 14 reported cases of attacks by students on teachers and 28 among students themselves, while the community accounted for three and eight reported cases of violent attacks on teachers and students respectively. Three students were killed at school during the period under review.
INADEQUACY OF FURNITURE
He said some of the violent acts arise out of the inadequacy of furniture, as, students fought over the removal of chairs and desk from one classroom to another and even within the same classroom.
According to Professor Barry Chevannes, Dean of the Faculty of Social Science at the University of the West Indies, who addressed the opening session of the conference, "the culture of violence and aggression, like bacteria, have become the source of an epidemic... and the only known antibiotic for this bacteria is mentorship."
He said mentoring should be equally the role of teachers as is the transmission of knowledge and noted that "the society needs skilled people who are motivated not by the fear of punishment but by voluntary conformity to values." But there was an aching need for changes in the education system, which would among other things, see the abolition of the shift system and the introduction of a pupil-teacher ratio of one (teacher) to 25 (students), he said.
According to Professor Che-vannes, "Schools on the shift system afford children no extra-curricular activities, since as classes are over, the morning shift must make way for the evening and both sets of students spend their extra-curricular time on the streets."
He stressed that schools should not exceed a few hundred students. "A population of 2,000 might be acceptable for a college or university, but for a high school, it is not only an administrative challenge but also, it is counter-productive to the transmission of values."
On the third day of the conference, Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson repeated Govern-ment's plans that the Ministry was constructing 17 new schools in western Jamaica, with a total of 10,000 secondary school spaces and nearly 5,000 primary school spaces. She also said that model basic school facilities were being built.
NO TIME FRAME
However, the ministry ac-knowledged that it could not fulfil all the requests for additional spaces and furniture in time for the new school year and it could not provide a time frame for their provision. "We are not promising that we will be able to fulfil all the requests for furniture in time for the new school year," Senator Noel Montieth, State Minister of Education said.
According to JTA delegate Livingston Moore, this could mean that students will have to continue to "labour for learning under tragic circumstances" as, "with the amount of nails you have to drive into those desks and benches, the students are sitting on more nails than wood."
And despite the Ministry's proposed phasing out of the shift system, Chief Education Officer, Wesley Barrett, said the number of shift-schools would be increased come September. His announcement was met with sighs and a wave of mutterings from among the teachers.
CHALLENGES
But apart from addressing the challenges of more manageable pupil-teacher ratio, the disadvantages of the shift system and the need for positive values and attitudes, the representation provided by the JTA is also under scrutiny.
The association which has for nearly 40 years led the charge in seeking to improve teachers' salaries and conditions of service came in for critical appraisal from its members.
The association received an overall average of 54.1 per cent for its performance in six key areas representation and financial management receiving 43 and 47.6 per cent respectively, and service quality 56.8 per cent. Clearly the JTA needs to improve on its own communications with its members.
Meanwhile, given the fact that 95 per cent of the Ministry's budget goes towards salaries and wages within the sector, infrastructural development cannot take place at an acceptable level.
This means the furniture shortage will continue for some time and it could very well mean more violence in schools as has been pointed out in the JTA's annual report and indeed it also could mean that the remuneration for teachers to "stem the flow to foreign lands" is far away.
So we are back to the point of concern not just for education, but for Jamaica. With little or no money in the kitty to fund the development projects to complement a reformation of values and attitudes, will our efforts in this regard be recurrent failures?
JTA Past President Paul Adams suggested that an additional $12.5 billion be allocated to the ministry of education, but his proposal has been shot down by the reality that with 60 per cent of the national budget going towards financing debt, little is left for anything else.
So where does the teaching profession go from here?
SOUND PROPOSAL
Mr. Gabbidon's proposal for a mentorship programme for new graduates is a sound one as is the proposal for more extensive training at the teachers' colleges.
However, when enthusiastic new graduates are confronted with the frustrations of the classrooms, the temptation to find "greener pastures" will not be an option but an imperative.
Perhaps the Government itself will have to shift into a modernisation mode to give greater priority to education not just in salaries but infrastructural development as well.
And it goes without saying that private businesses and the wider community will have to join in the struggle to a greater degree to ensure that children are getting a good quality education.
