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Place principals on contract
— Says Henry-Wilson
BY NADINE WILSON Observer staff reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, June 06, 2013
FORMER Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson has backed calls for principals to be placed on contract to better facilitate improvement within the education system.
When asked her personal opinion on the matter during the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange meeting this week, Henry-Wilson, who is now the executive director of the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission, noted that such a move could actually prove to be beneficial.
HENRY-WILSON… it facilitates different kinds of arrangements that can inure to the benefit of the sector
"I think that principals could be placed on contract, and would also take into account your revolving door concept where persons who are professionals, but are not in the profession, could be trained and come back in, so they are not tenured, but they have a contractual agreement perhaps to take a school from a particular level to another level," she told Observer editors and reporters.
"Everybody sees it as punitive, but it also facilitates different kinds of arrangements that can inure to the benefit of the sector. I think a part of the transformation is transforming our minds about how the sector operates," she said.
Henry-Wilson, who served as the minister of education, youth and culture between 2002 and 2007, was among persons who had called for the contracting of principals. Her successor Andrew Holness, former prime minister, had proposed the idea as one of the solutions to tackling the leadership issues in some schools. He said there was no objection to putting principals on contract to encourage competency.
However, the suggestion has not found favour with some Jamaicans, who argue that teachers would need to be judged based on other factors besides performance, such as the existing resources in the schools.
The issue was once again raised during the most recent sectoral debate where current education minister Ronald Thwaites noted that the contracting of principals was something that would need to be considered going forward. Minister Thwaites also alluded to the very contentious issue of making changes to the deployment of teachers as well as leave allocation, which he said was a heavy financial drain on the Government.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2VTxTyDYk
— Says Henry-Wilson
BY NADINE WILSON Observer staff reporter wilsonn@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, June 06, 2013
FORMER Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson has backed calls for principals to be placed on contract to better facilitate improvement within the education system.
When asked her personal opinion on the matter during the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange meeting this week, Henry-Wilson, who is now the executive director of the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission, noted that such a move could actually prove to be beneficial.
HENRY-WILSON… it facilitates different kinds of arrangements that can inure to the benefit of the sector
"I think that principals could be placed on contract, and would also take into account your revolving door concept where persons who are professionals, but are not in the profession, could be trained and come back in, so they are not tenured, but they have a contractual agreement perhaps to take a school from a particular level to another level," she told Observer editors and reporters.
"Everybody sees it as punitive, but it also facilitates different kinds of arrangements that can inure to the benefit of the sector. I think a part of the transformation is transforming our minds about how the sector operates," she said.
Henry-Wilson, who served as the minister of education, youth and culture between 2002 and 2007, was among persons who had called for the contracting of principals. Her successor Andrew Holness, former prime minister, had proposed the idea as one of the solutions to tackling the leadership issues in some schools. He said there was no objection to putting principals on contract to encourage competency.
However, the suggestion has not found favour with some Jamaicans, who argue that teachers would need to be judged based on other factors besides performance, such as the existing resources in the schools.
The issue was once again raised during the most recent sectoral debate where current education minister Ronald Thwaites noted that the contracting of principals was something that would need to be considered going forward. Minister Thwaites also alluded to the very contentious issue of making changes to the deployment of teachers as well as leave allocation, which he said was a heavy financial drain on the Government.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz2VTxTyDYk
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