Teacher Caution!: Educators Tell Legislators To Tread Carefully With Reform

Senior educators are imploring public officials to tread cautiously in the debate on rationalising the way teacher education is delivered locally.

They argue that while changes to the system are inevitable, greater focus must be placed on the value these changes will have on the development of the education sector in the long run.

Dr Disraeli Hutton, education transformation and administration lecturer at the University of West Indies, said yesterday that while some proposed changes to the modus operandi of teacher-training institutions are necessary to keep in tandem with the needs of the wider society, the changes must be informed by thorough research.

Government Senator Wensworth Skeffery, a teacher, has called for State-funded teachers' colleges be transformed into specialised institutions. Skeffery, addressing the Senate last week, argued that Jamaica does not need more teachers per se, but more teachers who are qualified in line with the national educational needs.

Contributing to the debate, Opposition Senator Ruel Reid told the Upper House of Parliament that there was currently an oversupply of teachers and steps must be taken to regulate the intake of new personnel.

MORE INFORMATION NEEDED

However, yesterday, Hutton said before this could be done, more information is needed on what the country's educational needs are and how such streamlining would work. "These are ideas that may have worked in other countries, so we cannot throw out these ideas, but we need to test them. It makes no sense for us to go head-on to implement without ensuring that the results will be in keeping with what we are planning for," the lecturer argued.

Dr Donna Powell-Wilson, executive director of the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica, said the senator's suggestion should be given some careful consideration. Noting that the council, which supervises some schools that train teachers, has not adopted a position on the issue, Powell-Wilson said in her estimation, any rationalising of the system would have to be done within strict parameters. "We don't want to stop training teachers of certain categories now and then later on we need these teachers," she cautioned.

Like Hutton, she posited that such debate must be informed by relevant research, as the country cannot afford to get this wrong. Powell-Wilson said the transformation of teacher-training institutions should also include a thrust towards upgrading those teachers who are already in the system.

Hutton agreed, citing that this upgrade would eliminate the problem of having unqualified teachers delivering critical subjects.

"Teachers must have the required qualifications to teach specific areas. It makes no sense that you have a person with a social studies degree teaching mathematics," Hutton added.