KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC), Dr Winsome Gordon, says the Government’s move to implement a regime for the licensing and registration of teachers is aimed at ensuring greater levels of accountability and professionalism in teaching.

“There is a global move towards professionalising teaching,” she said.

“[This is] so that it is recognised as a professional body, with teachers registered according to certain criteria, licensed to practise, and the profession assesses itself for its own quality, its own contribution, its own relevance. So it’s an agreement that the teaching profession should be licensed and to be held accountable,” she noted.

The licensing regime is expected to take effect with the passage of the pending JTC Bill.

The legislation will also facilitate the establishment of a governing body for the teaching profession.

According to Education, Youth and Information Minister, Ruel Reid, “we are at the very last round of the review (of the Bill) before we send it back to Cabinet legislative committee”.

“I am hoping that before the end of this calendar year, we should be able to table it in Parliament,” he said.

Gordon said that the regime to be put in place will help address many of the challenges facing the sector, such as people teaching subjects and grade cohorts for which they were not trained or certified.

She said that registration will be free of cost while there will be a fee for getting the licence.

“Registration is registration for life. Licensing will be….for a period of about five years, and then the teacher will be required to renew the licence,” she noted.

She outlined that for renewal of licence, the teacher will have to demonstrate competence to teach, including ability to teach diverse groups, the ability to use modern technology effectively to bring about learning, and “that he or she reflects on teaching, does a bit of research and so on.”

A proposed teacher appraisal system is another component that will affect licence renewal.

Reid said that the ministry is in consultation with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) on the appraisal scheme.

“I have not signed off with that yet because it’s going to be a collaborative exercise between the JTA and our ministry. So we are still at the review period. It is being (tested) but has not been made official yet,” he indicated