Stewart

New president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), Michael Stewart, has said teachers are hoping to hear positive news from the Government about outstanding salaries. The matter is expected to be addressed when Education Minister Andrew Holness addresses the conference today.

In an interview with The Gleaner, Stewart, who assumed office Monday night, said the failure to sign off on the realignment of salaries for the nation's more than 23,000 teachers, which has been outstanding for one year, was cause for concern for the JTA.

Another issue on the mind of the new president is what he calls unfair criticism of teachers by the media, which he claimed undermined morale.

"Some of the things that have been said about the teachers on a whole have really demoralised the teachers and we're hoping that we will get back on a level keel in terms of having open dialogue and communication (with the Government)," Stewart said.

He added: "We will be depending on the Ministry of Education to level back the playing field for the teachers. We believe that the master teacher, the minister of education himself, should be very teacher-friendly and should really be setting the teachers at ease as it relates to issues.

"If they are having any problems at all, we're hoping at the JTA that we would have dialogue. We don't want to hear teachers being bashed in the various media because that does not augur well for education at all."

Stewart also said he was not comfortable with the policy to license teachers, as the JTA had not yet seen any working document on the matter.

Stewart said his administration would also be looking at improving transparency and accountability within the education sector.