Letter of the Day | Give the JTC time to develop its mandate

THE EDITOR, Madam:

There has been an upheaval that has been occurring at the Government’s recent passage of the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill. In my opinion, the JTA, PNP, among others, are not being realistic.

The regulation of teacher education is important to promote quality educator preparation, and many countries have established regulatory bodies to ensure this.

Yet, the quality of teacher education in many places is falling. Lack of maintenance and deterioration of professional standards are found in various programmes and policies. This is seen, for example, in access or admission policies, appointment of personnel, infrastructure maintenance, and modes or styles of delivering pedagogical skills, among others.

The JTC Bill is very similar to other teacher regulations around the world and is not governed by a single system.

Regulatory bodies on teacher education, which originated after the middle of the 20th century, mainly perform these prime functions: provide recognition or affiliation to the teacher education institutions based on certain criteria; set standards for the infrastructure of the institutions for running the programmes; define or regulate the curricula of the programmes; and formulate guidelines for the award of certificates, diplomas, and degrees.

The nature and functions of regulatory bodies vary from country to country, keeping in mind the contextual demand of teacher education in the respective countries.

Teacher education regulatory bodies are more visible in federal or decentralised countries because of the diverse features and complex nature of their teacher education systems.

Teachers who migrated from Jamaica are regulated more strictly than what currently obtains in the JTC Bill. For example, The Ontario College of Teachers, of which I’m a member.

We should give the JTC time to develop its mandate for it to become effective in an evolving global teaching environment.

When a regulatory body of teacher education system is free from impediments that affect it and works with zeal to achieve its mandates, it can effectively increase the quality of the teacher education system.

RODWIN GREEN

Ontario, Canada