THE new president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) yesterday called for the Government to provide legal representation for teachers who, in doing their jobs, sometimes come into conflict with students and parents and end up in court.

Sadie Comrie, in her inaugural address as head of the teachers’ union at its annual conference at the Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios, made the call in the context of rising violence in Jamaican schools, which, on occasion, has led to attacks on teachers by parents and even students.

In one recent case, a teacher at the Clan Carty Secondary School in Kingston was allegedly bitten and stabbed by a student who resented the teacher’s attempt to discipline another student. Both the student and teacher ended up in a magistrate’s court.

“Too often, teachers in pursuance of their duties encounter situations of conflict with students and parents,” Comrie, a guidance counsellor at the Lewisville High School in New Market, St Elizabeth told the 300 delegates. “Under these circumstances, where matters have to be addressed by the courts, teachers are left with no legal recourse, or must foot exorbitant legal bills.”

She said she intended to lobby the education ministry for change.

“This is a matter which came to the ministry some time ago but is still not resolved,” Patrick Smith, a member of the JTA executive, told the Observer after Comrie’s speech.

He expected that the issue will be raised by teachers today when the education minister, Burchell Whiteman, addresses the conference.

The issue of violence in schools, and responses to it, have been a matter of growing debate in Jamaica, particularly since the latter part of the 1990s in the wake of a growing number of student-on-student attacks and altercations between students/parents and teachers. There have also been cases where guns have been found on campuses and school boys charged.

Nearly two years ago, the education ministry launched a pilot project to have time-out periods from school and interventions by behavioural specialists, for students with serious problems of discipline.

However, teachers have argued that the system has not worked and earlier this year, an association of principals of the newly upgraded high schools advocated a boot camp-type facility, with the appropriate experts, to deal with problem children.

Comrie did not specifically address this issue yesterday, but called for guidance counsellors to be immediately placed in schools where there are none. In the interim, she suggested, the Government could implement a cluster system, where guidance counselling services can be shared among schools with relatively small populations.

“This is a necessary move for implementation in light of the crisis that currently exists regarding the increased incidence of violence in some of our schools,” she said. “Those students who exhibit troubling behaviour need to have adequate intervention to prevent an escalation to acts of aggression and violence.”

Comrie also said that her administration would lobby for improved pensions for retired teachers and echoed the customary demand of JTA presidents: improved working conditions for teachers.

For example, she proposed that clerical assistants be provided for principals, many of whom not only do their jobs as managers, but also teach classes and do clerical work.

She highlighted a number of other improvements that were needed, including:

* the provision of adequate classroom facilities for all students and teachers;

* libraries in all schools;

* appropriate facilities for the storage of school documents, equipment and general supplies;

* proper sanitary conveniences for both students and teachers;

* security and protection of students, teachers and the school plant;

* equipment to enhance instruction; and

* adequately furnished staff rooms and school plants.

She also called for increased computer access for teachers.

While Government has attempted in recent years to provide all primary and secondary schools with computers, this is not enough, she said.

“Experience in other countries, including the US, shows that equipping schools with computers without the accompanying training of teachers in the use of technology does not benefit anyone,” Comrie said.

On the subject of teacher migration, she said the JTA has sought to dissuade, with little success, teachers from leaving the island. An estimated 700 Jamaican teachers were recruited for British and American schools in the last school year and Comrie expects more to follow this year.

“The pull is strong and, therefore, it will absorb many more if a deliberate effort is not made to improve the conditions in our classrooms and of our teachers,” she said.