ROSE HALL, St James — Immediate past president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), Georgia Waugh Richards has blasted members of the association whom she claimed have criticised the leadership of the association and leaked information to the media.

Waugh Richards, addressing delegates attending the JTA’s 54th annual conference here, suggested that she did not get the full support of teachers during her reign as president for 2017/2018..

“When your next president comes, don’t do like you have done [to me like saying things such as] ‘she can tan deh, mi a go a school’, and then you write to the media and call Cliff Hughes ( Nationwide Radio talk show host) and say, ‘mi cry cree, mi never talk’. And then you expect president alone fi bear the load,”argued Waugh Richards. “Colleagues, this is a call. We need to wake up as Jamaica Teachers’ Association,” she stressed.

“Colleagues, I take my leave from the chair but I stand behind our new president, because things cannot be the same. The teachers of Jamaica must begin to speak, must be given support in leadership.

“It can’t be that you have an association where we’re taking a stand and you have (JTA) parish presidents going to school and go gather pickney under tree, all when school gate lock. It can only get better if we demand better,” said the former JTA president, in reference to teachers who did not support a three-day sick-out in March to push demands for better wages.

Waugh Richards told delegates of the 25,000-strong association to leave the association if they were not warriors and allow some real JTA people to lead the charge.

“United we stand, divided we fall. Back out of the JTA if you’re not a warrior, and allow some real JTA people to lead the charge. Leave the JTA alone and stop criticise and carry news around because we must do that which we were assigned to do,” a militant Waugh Richards told teachers.

Waugh Richards passed on the leadership baton to principal of Church Teachers’ College in Manchester, Dr Garth Anderson on Monday night, during an investiture ceremony held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa in St James.

The three-day JTA conference was held under the theme: ‘Promoting the Teaching Profession: A Beacon of Hope and Inspiration to our Nation’.