Johnson wired and inspired to serve as JTA boss

WESTERN BUREAU:

With more than 20 years of service to education under his belt, Leighton Johnson, the principal of Muschett High School in Trelawny, says he is inspired, wired, and ready to transform the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) if he is afforded the opportunity to serve as its next president.

“It is on the shoulders of teachers that our nation stands, so it is my intent to reposition the teaching profession to be the standard-bearer of all professions,” said Johnson. “That is the intent that I have in terms of the transformational approach that I bring to the leadership of the JTA at this time.”

Come next month, Johnson will be challenging three other principals and a classroom teacher in the five-way race for the coveted post of JTA president-elect.

Principals La Sonja Harrison of St Faith Primary School in St Catherine, Eaton McNamee of Broadleaf Primary in Manchester, Timroy Shaw of Highgate Primary and Junior High in St Mary, and Anthony Kenney, a senior classroom teacher at Kings Primary and Infant school in Westmoreland, are the other candidates.

According to Johnson, transforming education will require, among other things, the revamping of the internal communication processes within the JTA and its members. He said he is ready to do just that, should the over 23,000 delegates elect him to lead the association.

“It is necessary at this point for us to ensure that communication within the Jamaica Teachers’ Association is improved and that the JTA uses the current tools that are available – Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter – to connect with its membership,” said Johnson.

The existing method of communication is done from the JTA’s General Council to the central executive, to contact teachers, to the parish and district associations before it gets into the schools where the bulk of the association members are.

“We have to move away from that, where the Jamaica Teachers’ Association can now communicate directly with its membership; that is what is needed at this time,” argued Johnson, whose campaign slogan reads, ‘Inspired and wired for transformation with no teacher left behind’.

Johnson also said transforming the education sector with him at the helm of the JTA will see teachers being empowered, and encouraged to do more for their students and the sector in general.

“Confident, satisfied and motivated teachers will assist in transforming the education sector, and as a principal, it is my intent and duty to ensure that teachers are kept motivated to produce. This is what I intend to do at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association,” said the confident Johnson.

“At this point, it is my intention to rebrand education from the perspective of the teacher to a system of rebranding education from the perspective of the Ministry of Education,” he said.