Performance-based pay still being rejected by teachers
Published:Monday | January 31, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
THE President of the Jamaica Teacher's Association (JTA), Nadine Molloy Young, has sought to explain the reasons behind her organisation's opposition to performance-based pay for teachers.
Education Minister Andrew Holness last December signalled that his ministry was prepared to fire teachers whose students continue to perform poorly in the Grade Four Literacy Test.
But Molloy Young says the performance of students does not necessarily reflect the input of the teachers.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum last Thursday, Molloy Young argued that the factors that impact on the end result in education are varied and wide. She said it was difficult to set specific performance-based standards at this time as the system was too fluid.
"There are so many tiers at a level that should not be tiered, that it is difficult to arrive at the standards. We do not have the standards that we need to have to ensure that there is some kind of method when we begin to assess the teachers," Molloy Young said. She pointed to the differences among schools and argued that the playing field is not level.
"When you look at what the teachers have to deal with and the challenges in the system ... you can't compare what happens with one setting to what happens in another geographical area. The system is too uneven, too fluid to speak to that at this time," Molloy Young said.
The JTA president said schools are required to set performance targets and teachers are assessed against these requirements. But she argued that the resources available to these schools is a major restricting factor.
"Everybody speaks to education as being the tool that will guide us to the future but unfortunately, as you look around the globe, not many countries are willing to put what is necessary into education for it to do what we claim we want it to do," Molloy Young said.
In December Holness told Parliament that some of the island's primary and all-age schools may be shut down if they continue to perform below par in the Grade Four Literacy Test.
Three-year plan
The minister also said his ministry is in the middle of a three-year plan to increase literacy on the island and said that at the end of next year, some schools, principals and teachers could be axed.
"Next year is the time for action. Next year when we have the third sitting of the test (Grade Four Literacy Test), we will be looking at schools that constantly underperform and decisions we will be made on not just support and intervention, but on looking on whether or not the teaching staff is effective and from that will flow actions ranging from support to separation," the minister said.
Meanwhile, the JTA president said there is an urgent need to reposition education in the country, thereby making it an attractive proposition for young people.
"We need to change the culture in Jamaica about how to acquire an education. It is really not something that is very important to us in Jamaica, but we need it for a better quality of life and there are not many people who are aspiring to that quality of life," Molloy Young said.
She told the Editors' Forum that a serious effort is needed to cater to the learning styles of the students and the disparity between the student-teacher ratio.
"You have 60 students in front of you, and with this comes students with different learning challenges. You have to ensure that children have equal opportunities for education. What we will not accept for ourselves, we must not accept for anybody else's child," she said.
She recommended that the emphasis should be placed on getting the importance of education on the lips of every Jamaican.