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100 employed as teachers under JEEP
BY LUKE DOUGLAS Career and Education senior reporter douglasl@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, November 05, 2012
NEARLY 100 teachers have been employed at the pre-primary level under the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), and another 100 are in training to be deployed under the programme's second phase, education minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites disclosed last Thursday.
However the discrepancy in the stipend they receive, compared to permanent government-paid basic school teachers still remains, a situation which Thwaites describes as an injustice.
The teachers employed under JEEP receive a payment of $40,000 per month, but the permanent teachers a paid a monthly stipend of about $26,000.
The teachers were employed under JEEP following a survey that revealed there were 2000 trained teachers in the country who could not find work in the education system.
Thwaites announced last July that 300 of that number would be employed under JEEP.
The minister said his Ministry was "gathering the resources to pay special emphasis to special education under the second phase" of JEEP.
He also admitted that the amount that permanent teachers in basic schools are currently paid by government was unfair.
"There is an injustice in how early childhood practitioners has been paid. We pledge to do our best to redress that in the upcoming year", he told The Observer.
Meanwhile a basic school teacher in St Thomas said there were five teachers in her community who were being paid at the rate of $26,000.
She said she upgraded her qualifications by achieving a diploma from Shortwood Teachers' College but was still being paid at the low rate.
Thwaites also indicated that the way how all teachers are compensated was in need of review.
"The entire package of compensation and benefits have developed over a long period of time in ways that frankly are no longer sustainable. We have to do justice to our teachers and set them on a remunerative career path but we cannot continue some of the old patterns that have taken up a lot of money and do not necessarily produce the best results," he said.
He said he hoped the ministry could achieve consensus following discussions with the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) on matters such as long leave and study leave.
Responding to the minister's comment JTA president Clayton Hall said he was not averse to discussions with the ministry on any matter, but said the benefits given up by the teachers would have to be considered.
"We do recognize that under the last two reclassification exercises the teachers gave up 20 per cent of salary to be pegged at 80 per cent of market value (because of leave and pension)" Hall said.
"We are cognizant that the economic landscape has changed and we are willing to sit at the table to have those things dealt with in consideration that the 20 per cent opportunity cost would also be party to that negotiation when looking at the reduction of leave or expiration of our non-contributory pension."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2FUkVZCZx
BY LUKE DOUGLAS Career and Education senior reporter douglasl@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, November 05, 2012
NEARLY 100 teachers have been employed at the pre-primary level under the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP), and another 100 are in training to be deployed under the programme's second phase, education minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites disclosed last Thursday.
However the discrepancy in the stipend they receive, compared to permanent government-paid basic school teachers still remains, a situation which Thwaites describes as an injustice.
The teachers employed under JEEP receive a payment of $40,000 per month, but the permanent teachers a paid a monthly stipend of about $26,000.
The teachers were employed under JEEP following a survey that revealed there were 2000 trained teachers in the country who could not find work in the education system.
Thwaites announced last July that 300 of that number would be employed under JEEP.
The minister said his Ministry was "gathering the resources to pay special emphasis to special education under the second phase" of JEEP.
He also admitted that the amount that permanent teachers in basic schools are currently paid by government was unfair.
"There is an injustice in how early childhood practitioners has been paid. We pledge to do our best to redress that in the upcoming year", he told The Observer.
Meanwhile a basic school teacher in St Thomas said there were five teachers in her community who were being paid at the rate of $26,000.
She said she upgraded her qualifications by achieving a diploma from Shortwood Teachers' College but was still being paid at the low rate.
Thwaites also indicated that the way how all teachers are compensated was in need of review.
"The entire package of compensation and benefits have developed over a long period of time in ways that frankly are no longer sustainable. We have to do justice to our teachers and set them on a remunerative career path but we cannot continue some of the old patterns that have taken up a lot of money and do not necessarily produce the best results," he said.
He said he hoped the ministry could achieve consensus following discussions with the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) on matters such as long leave and study leave.
Responding to the minister's comment JTA president Clayton Hall said he was not averse to discussions with the ministry on any matter, but said the benefits given up by the teachers would have to be considered.
"We do recognize that under the last two reclassification exercises the teachers gave up 20 per cent of salary to be pegged at 80 per cent of market value (because of leave and pension)" Hall said.
"We are cognizant that the economic landscape has changed and we are willing to sit at the table to have those things dealt with in consideration that the 20 per cent opportunity cost would also be party to that negotiation when looking at the reduction of leave or expiration of our non-contributory pension."
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2FUkVZCZx
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