JTA presidential aspirant Winston Smith hoping to transform education

Albert Ferguson, Gleaner Writer

Winston Smith, principal of Golden Spring Primary School in St Andrew, says if he is successful in his bid to become the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) president-elect, he would look at revamping the training institute for contact teachers.

According to Smith, when he first became a contact teacher in 2006, the JTA had a robust training institute where these persons received extensive training in critical areas of the association, such as its code of ethics, the country’s labour laws, and effective representation.

However, after seeing the system in operation for 14 years, Smith thinks there is an urgent need for the association to rebrand and re-implement the contact teacher-training programme to equip educators with the requisite tools to foster better relationships between classroom teachers and the school leadership.

“What I have found is that in recent times, that kind of rigorous training and preparation has gone off the boil, and that is something I want to bring back, because I have also been told that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” Smith said.

“What you find is that teachers now, who would have been serving at the classroom level, would get a chance to be actively engaged and educated by the JTA, so you could now mitigate some of the challenges that emanate from issues within schools,” continued Smith.

“If the contact teachers are adequately qualified to treat with matters at that level, then you will not have too many issues of grievances coming forward, creating negative publicity on the education section,” added Smith.

This will be Smith’s second attempt to serve at the helm of the JTA.

In 2019, he was defeated at the polls by Jasford Gabriel, principal of Manchester High School.

This time around, he will be going up against Godfrey Drummond, a senior classroom teacher at Petersfield Primary School in Westmoreland.

Smith is campaigning on an 18-point manifesto, which he hopes will be approved by the JTA’s General Council should he become the president-elect, which would pave the way for him to become president for the 2021-2022 administrative year.

In addition to revamping the training institute for contact teachers, Smith also wants to craft an effective salary package that will bring greater levels of satisfaction to all educators, to activate the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals For Primary Schools, and the establishment of a protocol that will secure top-quality healthcare services for teachers.

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