Peter Espeut | The JTA is part of the problem

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) is not a professional association; it is a trade union. A professional association sets standards for members of that profession to adhere to, and then enforces them to protect the image and quality of the profession. Professionals who are accused of unprofessional conduct are brought before a disciplinary committee of the professional body to answer the charges, and if found substantially in breach, lose the support of their peers, and are barred from practising their profession. From time to time news breaks that an attorney-at-law is disbarred, or the licence of a medical practitioner is suspended or withdrawn. That is a professional association at work!

Over my decades as a school board chairman, on a number of occasions I have been called upon to bring disciplinary proceedings against teachers for unprofessional conduct, and in every case the offending teacher has been stoutly defended by the JTA, no matter their offence. Of course, every accused person is entitled to a defence, and I expect their union to step up to defend them; but that is my point: who defends high standards in the teaching profession? Not the JTA.

It has been my experience (and of other board chairs I have spoken with) that the JTA sees its role as to get the teacher off the charge and back at their post, no matter what the offence, whether it is misappropriation of school funds or sexually molesting a student. Even when it is an open-and-shut case – even where clear and incontrovertible evidence is brought before the board’s disciplinary hearing – the JTA’s approach is to find some procedural breach to get the matter thrown out. Never does the JTA turn to the teacher and say, “You are clearly guilty of this offence, and are a disgrace to the teaching profession”. Who defends high standards in the teaching profession? Not the JTA.

BEGGING FOR LENIENCY

In one case where guilt was satisfactorily proven after being vigorously denied and defended, I recall the JTA representative begging us for leniency, for the board to give the (persistently dishonest) teacher another chance. I guess as a trade union the JTA has to do that, but they can’t then turn around and claim to be defending high standards in the teaching profession. The JTA makes no effort to weed unprofessional teachers out of the system. Who defends high standards in the teaching profession? Not the JTA. In fact, the JTA is part of the problem!

What is even more serious is when a JTA activist becomes an education officer (which often happens). In my experience, certain education officers are more interested in defending the welfare of (non-performing) teachers and principals than the welfare of the students. Any minister of education will find that not only does he/she have to battle with the JTA to reform the education system, but with a powerful fifth column within his/her ministry.

I was interested to note that in establishing the Education Transformation Commission under Professor the Hon Orlando Patterson, the Government excluded any representation from the JTA. This was a wise move! Since the JTA is a big part of the problem, having them on the commission might prevent honest analysis. The Commission Report has been out for over a year, and the JTA so far has not offered any substantive and coherent response. They can’t be happy!

The Government is considering a bill to create the Jamaica Teaching Council – a body to set and enforce high standards in the teaching profession. It is no surprise that the JTA has publicly stated its opposition to the bill.

In my column of June 7, 2013 I wrote the following:

“At the moment, the JTA does not represent ‘education’ but the narrow interests of teachers. The teaching profession lacks a body that will defend high standards, that will put to the forefront the rights of the students to learn, and will ensure that if the children do not learn, it is not because of non-performing teachers, education officers and school boards. … I am sure that should such a professional body be proposed, the JTA will fight it tooth and nail, like a stray cat backed against the wall.”

DEFEAT THE PURPOSE

At a forum earlier this week on the crisis in our education system, the newly minted JTA president boldly asserted that the JTA demands that its members occupy 75 per cent of the seats on the Jamaica Teaching Council when it is created! If they even hold 51 per cent of the seats, that will defeat the whole purpose of the Jamaica Teaching Council.

The JTA has earned its place at the table as a trade union; it must have very minor representation on the Jamaica Teaching Council (including through proxies among education officers). We cannot look to the JTA to solve the problems of our non-performing education system, for the JTA is a big part of the problem.

In its editorial last Wednesday, The Gleaner lamented that “what we hoped for from last week’s annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) did not materialise: a deliberative affair that analysed and proffered solutions to the crisis facing Jamaica’s failing education system. By which we mean the JTA’s leadership having more than a public grouse about pay and conditions in the classroom”.

But I ask my editors why they should have expected anything else. The JTA is a teachers’ union, dedicated to winning for their members the greatest benefits for the least work. It is not concerned about teacher efficiency, or the quality of teacher output. If the JTA is consulted about some proposed shift in education policy, its interest will be not whether the students will benefit, or whether the education system will improve, but whether teachers will have to work harder, or what privilege they might lose.

The Jamaica Teaching Council must be in a position to rein in the JTA, and to demand performance from the teaching profession. Let those who have brought excellence to their educational product drive excellence in the system as a whole. That is where the solutions lie.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com