It bemuses me how, within the education sector, teachers and the other stakeholders of the system are as constantly left with the option of washing dirty linen in public owing to the little say they seemingly have in matters that concern them. There consequent actions are then interpreted as issuing jabs of debasement.

I draw attention to two most recent transformations in the sector — the roll-out of the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) and the change from the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) to the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

I have observed that educators and other stakeholders in the education sector have to remain relentless and public in their efforts to gain insight, inclusion, and to have an input in the shaping, making and changing of policies and procedures that will directly affect them and those under their charge — our children.

In the case of the NSC, well, many teachers attest to not being involved in the drafting and/or developing of the plan, and had no say in what would make for a better curriculum or teaching and learning experience.

Many schools and administrators voiced their unrepentant concerns regarding their respective schools being at a distinct disadvantage with some of the requirements being asked to be met by the students under the PEP. Very recently, following the PEP results, again, teachers and Jamaica Teachers’ Association representatives are in the spotlight calling on the technocrats to further explain how this grading by band and proficiency and/or the lack thereof is carried out and the implication for their schools and their pedagogy.

These calls for answers, more often than not, get ignored. What ensues is educators putting on a parade or demonstration to highlight the shortcomings and oversights of any pending or implemented policy, which for me becomes almost a public disgrace, mockery and undermining of the noble profession and the professional standards that guide its operation. Why must teachers be forced to resort to such means?

Well, firstly, I surmise that it seems teachers are not seen by our technocrats to have the intellectual capacities to have the discourse needed to create policy and systems. But the fact is that most of the technocrats have not spent enough time working the grounds to know what are achievable criteria to be targeted and the difference between what exists in the First World countries they may be have visited and Jamaica, a developing country.

Secondly, it may be as a result of most educators’ propensity to meet changes with objection and rejection, and thus are deemed unfit to be a part of the decision-making or have any say in matters that concern them.

I do believe, however, that for the education sector to truly become as much as it is poised to be — a leading sector operating on international best practices — that our stakeholders must be allowed to sit at the able of decision and development. If this means listening to the cause before the ‘tantrum’, then do so. Also, the stakeholders of the sector must know when to stop the whining and to become more agile and innovative practitioners who are capable of navigating and making do with whatever is thrown at them. To me, that is the hallmark of teaching, that is resilience.

Oftentimes many of what I categorise as tantrums are thrown by our educators without any real merit and this must be avoided. They must not be allowed to bring the profession into disrepute. For example, take a look at the issue of proficiency in PEP. For as long as I can remember, grade four diagnostic and grade four literacy assessments are measured by levels of mastery and the Caribbean Examinations Council uses a proficiency scale. So regardless of the sector an educator is in he/she would have come across this form of a scale before and need not make a storm in a teacup over the PEP results, which, as common knowledge, has been courting controversy from inception.

The education vanguards, like always, ought to to remain committed to the task at hand and not be sidetrack by minor issues. And, while I laud them for always voicing their concerns, I hope, though, that we will pursue real issues in the interest of a nation that is committed to the notion that: “Every child can learn, every child must learn.”

We must no longer see the teaching profession being dragged through the mud with allegations that we are not ready or that we do not understand the grading scheme. Some even accuse the sector as not being able to implement. Many sectors, including the banking, security, manufacturing and service sectors have had their fair share of experience, similar if not more drastic, and changes and have been worked out in a more orderly and diplomatic way, with their discrepancies amicably sorted. Teachers can achieve this too.

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