Dr Helen Abadiano, a professor at the Central Connecticut State University, yesterday questioned whether a three-year teacher's diploma is professionally competent and urged local teachers' colleges to push instead for more rigorous four-year degree programmes.

Speaking at yesterday's opening session of the two-day Annual Professional Development Conference of the Joint Board of Teacher Education (JBTE) at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, Dr Abadiano emphasised that teacher education was crucial to the changes, needs and demands in the classroom.

"If we acknowledge that 'professionalism and specialised knowledge' are crucial to teacher preparation, what are the implications to teacher education programmes?" Dr Abadiano asked.

She also questioned if our students who complete three-year diploma were professionally competent and knowledgeable about content.

Dr Abadiani, whose university offers the Master of Science degree in Reading and Language Arts at the Sam Sharpe Teachers' College in St James, supported a similar call by the Task Force on Education that Prime Minister P J Patterson established earlier this year.

The Task Force recommended among other things, a first degree as the minimum qualification for teaching. It also recommended an increase in the number of days in the school year and performance-based pay for teachers to take the sector forward.

Yesterday, the university professor also urged all stakeholders in education to work together and have ongoing dialogue for the children's educational future.

"If the children are our nation's future, then, our nation's future can't be that bright or promising if these children grow up to be illiterate adults," she argued. "Consequently what might be perceived by others as a national obsession to raise the standards and quality of our children's education and the demands it places on teacher education programmes necessitate that all stakeholders in children's education must come together and have ongoing conversations that can lead to shared goals and a vision for our children's educational future," she said.

She added: "While we are cognisant of the various factors that may contribute to success or failure in children's schooling, we cannot deny or ignore the prominent and indespensable role of teacher education in all of this." She added that such could bring equity in local classrooms, judging from Jamaica's diverse classrooms, schools and communities.

The JBTE conference is being held under the theme, "Teacher Education and National Development: Redefining Our Philosophy". One of the conference's goals is to develop a philosophical statement for teacher education that will serve as a guide to their profession.

"We want to consciously cement and bond into a unified group," said the JBTE's chairman Joan Tucker.

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