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THE Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is in support of the policy announced by Government that all the country's teachers should be qualified with at least a bachelor's degree.
However, the teachers' union says the Government is only catching up with a policy that is already being instituted by the teachers' colleges, and is calling on whoever forms the next government to provide the necessary resources to follow through on the policy.
"We welcome it, we have no problem with it," JTA president Paul Adams said of the policy announced by minister with responsibility for information, Senator Arthur Williams earlier this month.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Senator Williams said the move was in keeping with the recommendations of the report of task force on education reform.
However, Adams made it clear that teacher training institutions and the teachers themselves were already adjusting themselves to training teachers to the bachelor's degree level.
"The impression is given that it is the Government that is instituting the policy. The government is now playing catch up as it is my understanding that from last September, all students entering (teachers' colleges) are doing the bachelor's degree," Adams told the Observer yesterday. "A number of teachers have acquired bachelor's degrees on their own and at their own cost and continue to upgrade themselves professionally."
Meanwhile the JTA is looking forward to meeting with the new government to work out the details of the transition.
"We are hoping that when the excitement of the election is over we will sit down and work out the parameters for upgrading the diploma teachers. We are expecting a very smooth transition because a template is in place from transition from the certificate to the diploma," Adams said.
He was referring to when teachers' qualifications were upgraded from the two-year certificate to the three-year diploma in the 1980s.
The JTA head also said the new government "must commit itself to putting the necessary resources into the institutions training teachers," he said.
— Luke Douglas
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1gnRLXr2C
However, the teachers' union says the Government is only catching up with a policy that is already being instituted by the teachers' colleges, and is calling on whoever forms the next government to provide the necessary resources to follow through on the policy.
"We welcome it, we have no problem with it," JTA president Paul Adams said of the policy announced by minister with responsibility for information, Senator Arthur Williams earlier this month.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing, Senator Williams said the move was in keeping with the recommendations of the report of task force on education reform.
However, Adams made it clear that teacher training institutions and the teachers themselves were already adjusting themselves to training teachers to the bachelor's degree level.
"The impression is given that it is the Government that is instituting the policy. The government is now playing catch up as it is my understanding that from last September, all students entering (teachers' colleges) are doing the bachelor's degree," Adams told the Observer yesterday. "A number of teachers have acquired bachelor's degrees on their own and at their own cost and continue to upgrade themselves professionally."
Meanwhile the JTA is looking forward to meeting with the new government to work out the details of the transition.
"We are hoping that when the excitement of the election is over we will sit down and work out the parameters for upgrading the diploma teachers. We are expecting a very smooth transition because a template is in place from transition from the certificate to the diploma," Adams said.
He was referring to when teachers' qualifications were upgraded from the two-year certificate to the three-year diploma in the 1980s.
The JTA head also said the new government "must commit itself to putting the necessary resources into the institutions training teachers," he said.
— Luke Douglas
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1gnRLXr2C
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