Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Winston Smith is asserting that had the Government answered the call to provide educators with technological devices years before the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, online teaching and learning would be more effective.

According to Smith, there was an agreement between the JTA and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Services to give teachers laptops as part of their salary compensation in 2017.

“The aim was to get laptops for our members through negotiation, but the Government said it couldn’t give us money so we said, ‘Since you can’t give us money, give us the laptops’,” he explained.

Smith said, instead of laptops, the Government was able to afford tablets as part of the negotiated benefits for teachers’ personal use.

But, those tablets were not provided until last year.

“You see the tablets that we got, they were not the benevolence of the Government and I want the nation to know it was in lieu of our salary. So if we were to draw a hard line with the Government of Jamaica, we could have said we are not using our own device to teach, so therefore if you want education to continue, provide us with additional devices now,” he argued in an interview with the Jamaica Observer last week.

Further, Smith said that educators were not given lessons about how to utilise electronic devices to enhance the online teaching and learning process.

“The teachers did not just go home, twiddle their thumbs, and sit up and go to the beach. They pivoted. We were never taught how to use technology in this dispensation to teach. At no point in time prior to the pandemic were we given courses on it,” he said.

The JTA president said teachers learnt to teach in the online space with the basic knowledge obtained at the university level and by doing their own research through YouTube.

He, however, commended the Jamaica Teaching Council for putting forward a few programmes to enhance the skills and competence of teachers for online teaching amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Smith added that teachers deserve to be recognised for their resilient efforts of teaching in the pandemic.

“Now, we are in a situation where devices are no longer a luxury, but a fundamental necessity for the teacher to keep the education system a float. Here is an added cost brought on to teachers for which to date, the Government has not even said thank you to the teachers of Jamaica,” Smith said.

He added: “The teachers and children are not at school, so the amount of money the Government used to spend for the various schools would have been reduced. Who is now paying for it? The teachers, who are now at home.”