Dear Editor,

Columnist Oneil Madden, in ‘Treatment of universities and teachers’ colleges should be on par’ (
Jamaica Observer, January 16, 2024), made some assumptions, even erroneous ones, about teachers’ colleges that could have been prevented by some research.

While acknowledging that improvements of research outcomes were implemented through the introduction of “research officers” in teachers’ colleges, he failed to share that each institution operates both individually and collectively to achieve the ultimate goal of empowerment and leadership development through research. For example, under structure, collectively the Teachers’ College of Jamaica (TCJ) was established on October 7, 2014 when The University of the West Indies (UWI) signed a heads of agreement with eight teachers’ colleges to now offer the bachelor of education as a UWI approved degree. The participants are Bethlehem Moravian College; Church Teachers’ College: Mandeville; College of Agriculture, Science and Education; GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sports; The Moneague College, Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College; Shortwood Teachers’ College; and St Joseph’s Teachers’ College. TCJ is led by a dean, currently the principal of Church Teachers’ College and these colleges share the same chancellorship of The UWI. Graduates of these institutions have joint graduation exercises through The UWI. The awarding of the degree requires graduates to submit research papers.

Madden’s thesis postulates universities as “far more advanced” than teachers’ colleges because of doctoral degrees, research and publications required for leadership, while failing to examine what really happened in teachers’ colleges.

In regards to research, each teachers’ college hosts a research day, and a joint biennial research conference, under TCJ. Presenters at these symposiums include lecturers and student teachers from the colleges. The TCJ conference provides an exclusive platform for faculty, students, as well as local and international partners to share their theoretical knowledge, research findings and pedagogical approaches with their colleagues and academic community.

Faculty members submit their papers in a number of journals, including the
Journal of Teacher Education and Educational Leadership; Caribbean Union of Teachers’
The Educator. In addition, lecturers present and publish papers in their subject specialisation at conferences both locally, for example JTA Education Conference, as well as regionally at the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions and International Society for Educational Planning, and other conferences in North America each year.

Madden makes the following assumptions: “Part of the problem, though, is that these institutions do not cultivate a culture of excellence, even at the leadership level.” Since 2011 the Government has facilitated the establishment of the National College for Educational Leadership (NCEL) as an agency of the modernised Ministry of Education under the Education System Transformation Programme (ESTP), with the mandate to develop excellent leadership in Jamaica’s education system.

Leadership at the principal level in teachers’ colleges, and in our schools, requires more than a doctorate. The NCEL, through its various branches across the island, awards postgraduate certification in educational leadership that is required as part of qualifications for principalship.

Research involves more than imaginary postulations of the mind glorifying ignorance as opinions. Madden’s article lacks information that differentiate teachers’ colleges from universities in Jamaica. Teachers’ colleges have longer face-to-face hours; assessments of student teachers on practicum, along with setting and marking examination papers, that exclude time for engagement in research — a requirement at universities currently not being facilitated in the school system. It, therefore, means that those lecturers who participate in the annual research day symposiums, do so against a background of personal sacrifice of time, and the negative psychological and emotional impact from work overload.

Universities and teachers’ colleges are all tertiary institutions, but comparing them is like apples vs oranges.

Dudley McLean

dm15094@gmail.com