Kristen Gyles | Is JTC bill putting the cart before the horse?

If I break my leg and choose to visit the nearest bush ‘doctor’ for treatment, paying him at the agreed price, should he be locked up or fined for my interest in his services? If I am in desperate need of a chef to cater for my private event, and I am referred to Miss Betty, who cooks the best food in town, but does not have a food handler’s permit, should she be jailed for cooking my food? Should she be fined for lowering the standards of the culinary profession?

A review of the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) bill leaves me to wonder, yet again, what the obsession is with tinkering with people’s ability to make basic choices about the products and services they use. While the bill certainly seems well-intentioned, it is an overkill. Teachers belonging to the public education system expect to be policed in certain ways, but why are we subjecting private tutors and independent schools to the same rigours?

Students are different and speak different languages called learning styles. In many cases, students seek after teachers they know speak their language. If a student wishes to enlist the services of a private tutor, trained or not, they should be able to. I’m not sure why that needs to be regulated. The Government needs only to ensure that the untrained and uncertified teachers (or ‘Instructors’, as the bill identifies them) are not posing as though they are trained and certified. Some things can and should be left up to people and the money they are spending.

NOT CONVINCED

So, given all that, I’m genuinely not convinced that the bill is needed.

The bill is aimed at regulating the entry of persons into the teaching profession and establishing clear professional standards for teachers.

Clear professional standards already exist for teachers. Ask any pretrained or undergraduate student teacher how much they make and they’ll instantly be reminded that they are paid at a significantly lower level than their trained colleagues. In some cases, these teachers also miss out on benefits associated with the job, that are simply reserved for the more qualified breed of teachers.

The reason for the dissimilarity in remuneration is not a secret – if you want the full pay, get the full suite of qualifications. This is often used as an incentive to get underqualified teachers to level up their qualifications.

So, there are pretty clear professional standards. Teachers are well aware that they are expected to have a bachelor’s degree in education or a bachelor’s degree in a chosen subject area with a diploma in education. The million-dollar question then seems to be, if the professional standards are clear, why do so many teachers fall short?

The answer is simple: Many teachers never planned to become teachers. They were adopted into the profession by schools that were suffering from acute teacher shortages. But why would there be a shortage? Why aren’t qualified students flocking the teachers’ colleges?

Let’s see, at the end of this month, teachers will receive yet another instalment of paltry pay for their efforts in trying to control noisy classrooms of children whose behaviour sometimes stinks more than overflowing sewage pits. They are faced with disrespectful criticisms from parents who themselves can’t control their own children. They have to justify each and every form of punishment they mete out to the students, who are nothing but angels at home (apparently). Oh, and they often end up having to purchase teaching supplies out of pocket, that their respective schools don’t provide. Man, teachers are living quite the dream.

NOT VERY ATTRACTIVE

The problem I am highlighting here is that the teaching profession is simply not very attractive. Teaching has become somewhat of a last resort for many students who either can’t afford to do studies in other areas or who have difficulty matriculating into other areas. In cases where trained teachers are scarce, schools have no choice but to turn to student teachers or pretrained teachers to fill the demand. After all, having a teacher who is learning on the job is better than having none, and is also better than having math class in the school auditorium with 80 other students because one teacher has to teach three classes at the same time.

If only fully trained educators were employed as teachers, this would quite literally be the outcome. There is a shortage, and schools have to work with the labour that’s available. It’s not that deep.

So, what is the purpose of this bill again? To make it clear to underqualified teachers that they are not really teachers and to weed out freelancing tutors who are not registered or licensed to teach? So in the midst of a teacher shortage, we want to launch a massive teacher-weeding project? Seems we are putting the cart before the horse. If teachers are leaving the profession at a faster rate than new teachers are entering, wouldn’t it make sense to first focus on serious retention strategies before jumping to improved standards of teaching?

The best way to increase the standard of teaching in Jamaica is to pay teachers at acceptable levels. This will increase motivation and pride and will enable teachers to cover the costs of the very programmes they need to complete in order to become fully certified within the profession. Creating additional barriers for entry into the teaching profession seems like a great way to further drive the teacher shortage.

On the bright side, after the mass exodus of the teacher-weeds from the profession, the Government might retain enough unpaid salaries to give the teachers who are left a pay raise. On the dark side, a few of the 80 students they will be teaching at any one time will likely be sitting at the back of the auditorium beating on the desks or playing scrimmage football. Let’s wish them luck.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com.