Members of the joint select committee reviewing the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill were at odds during its meeting last Thursday about whether it should be a requirement under the legislation for teachers to hand in their licence when it is revoked.

The committee members were deliberating keeping or eliminating Clause 61 (4) of the Bill which stipulates that “a person whose licence is revoked shall, within seven days of the date of the revocation, surrender the licence, and every copy thereof to the council”.

Head of the JTC Dr Winsome Gordon told the committee that she believes teachers with a revoked licence ought to physically return it. Gordon expressed fear that these teachers could find themselves back in the classroom if the relevant due diligence was not done.

“I see no problem in the teacher returning that electronic card to the council. The teacher will not have that card if the teacher is suspended or the licence is revoked. I see no problem with that. When the teacher is left with that electronic card and goes to a school in Washwood Gully, for example, and shows his/her card, the verification is going to take a long time or maybe the poor principal is so glad for a teacher that he/she might not even bother to go and verify. So let us not create a problem where there doesn’t have to be a problem,” added Gordon.

But Government Senator Natalie Campbell Rodriques argued that she does not think the physical licence needs to be returned.

“How do you enforce that? And how many things do we do constantly that we can’t enforce?” she asked.

According to Campbell Rodriques, the onus is on employers to always check the roll to ensure that the teacher they are seeking to employ is licensed.

“So I don’t think we can enforce returning the licence unless we’re going to put a penalty there, and do we want to penalise that?

“I think it should be, you don’t have to turn in the physical [licence] but you’re struck from the roll, and the roll should be available for viewing on the website of the JTC,” added Campbell Rodriques.

Gordon countered that position, pointing to schools in deep-rural areas of Jamaica where the principals might not readily have access to that information.

“So, the safest way is to take back that card, because a teacher could take the card to [a remote area] and the principal has no electronic connection at the time to check the card. It’s possible. We assume that Jamaica is fully covered electronically, but this is not entirely true,” said Gordon.

In a quick response, Campbell Rodriques argued that a phone call by the principal would solve that problem.

She argued that principals who do not have Internet service at their school should be able to call the Ministry of Education’s regional office to find out if a teacher is registered.

Another Government member of the committee, Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern Tova Hamilton, said she was very concerned about Gordon’s statement that a teacher being hired may not necessarily go through a verification process.

“Regardless of whether or not that person has the licence physically, you still have to go through the process. So, I don’t take that point as the reason for us to keep the clause or to remove the clause. Every employer has to verify whether or not a teacher is able to teach,” said Hamilton.

In response, Gordon argued that in some instances verification could take a long time, during which the unregistered teacher could commit a whole lot of damage against the children.

But Hamilton queried if people would be allowed to start teaching before the verification process was completed.

“Because, if that’s the case, then we also have a difficulty there. It should not be happening,” declared Hamilton.