THE Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) on Monday welcomed Prime Minister PJ Patterson’s announcement last weekend that teachers would benefit from the plan to pay civil servants 80 per cent of the market rates.

“We welcome the announcement from the prime minister. We are now waiting for the Ministry of Finance to call us so that we can meet and start implementation as soon as possible,” President of the JTA, Paul Adams told the Observer.

Patterson announced Friday night that the salaries of teachers would be adjusted to reflect 80 per cent of that paid to their private sector counterparts, a package similar to that agreed with the Jamaica Civil Service Association on behalf of the island’s civil servants.

In February local civil servants accepted the government’s timetable to bring their salaries to 80 per cent of what private sector employees are paid. Under the agreement the civil servants’ salaries would be increased over a four-year period to bring them to within 80 per cent of their private sector counterparts.

According to the prime minister, although the teachers’ real satisfaction should come from what they do to make the lives of individuals better, it did not mean that the teachers’ material needs should be ignored or overlooked.

He was speaking at his special two-yearly function which was held to pay tribute to teachers in Eastern Westmoreland, at the Negril Hills Golf Club.

Adams was unable to give a timetable in bringing public sector teachers with the 80 per cent mark. But he said the announcement was not a surprise, as under a reclassification done in 1995, some positions in the teaching profession had been made equivalent to others in the civil service.

“In 1995 we had a reclassification of the teaching force. It was agreed that if any significant changes were made in the civil service then it would also apply to the teachers,” Adams said.

He said that at that time certain posts in the education sector had been pegged against specific posts in the public sector.

“For example, look at a nurse and a teacher — because both professions require five CXCs for entry into the profession as well as three years of study, the recommendation was made that in most instances the remuneration should be similar,” added JTA liaison officer, Patrick Smith.

But, according to Smith, the prime minister’s announcement had raised several questions:

* over what time period would the government make the adjustments?;

* would the government use the existing classification structure of teachers or would a reclassification be done?; and

* would the increase be attractive enough to stem the migration of teachers to the private sector and overseas?

Smith said that there were 29 levels in the teaching service and the rate of increase would be dependent on the teachers rating on that scale.

Teachers entering the profession with CXC level qualifications (pre-trained teachers) start at $275,328 annually and can get up to $288,161 for the year, Smith said. Pre-trained teachers, he said, made up about 16 per cent of the teaching profession.

Sixty-four per cent of teachers, he added, had a teacher’s diploma and earned between $406,977 and $455,963.

The others, he said, were trained graduates, who had both a teacher’s diploma and a degree. This category earned from $529,775 up to $600,739.