The Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) has reversed its suggestion that a teacher’s revoked or suspended licence should be physically returned to the council. Instead, it says it will employ the use of technology and cancel the licence electronically.

Head of JTC Dr Winsome Gordon had made the suggestion when the joint select committee of Parliament reviewing the JTC Bill met on May 30. At the time she had expressed concern that teachers whose licences have been suspended or revoked may move overseas and obtain employment.

During that meeting there was some confusion as members debated why the committee opted to delete subclause 61 (4) dealing with the return of a licence, which is also dealt with in subclause 49 (3). Dr Gordon wanted the clauses to be retained, stipulating that the licence be surrendered upon revocation.

“The concern we have is that if that physical licence is not returned to the council, then we will need to have a process to identify who are teachers here teaching without the licence or if they use it abroad, because the council has a link to other countries in terms of our accreditation of our teachers, and we don’t want somebody who has been suspended in Jamaica [or] whose licence has been revoked to go into a foreign country and is able to utilise it,” Dr Gordon said then.

But at Thursday’s sitting, Dr Gordon told the committee that the council had backtracked following discussions with the director of legal reform in the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Nadine Wilkins.

“We had discussions among ourselves and with Mrs Wilkins, and we agreed that we would just delete the clauses and not request anybody to return the licence to the council. Because, with modern use of modern technology, we’ll use electronic means to cancel the licence if it is revoked,” she said.

Committee chair, Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams said this was “good news”; while Government committee member Senator Kavan Gayle commented that “we are at one with this now; no challenge”.

The committee members agreed to also delete clause 49 (3) which deals with the deregistration, revocation of registration, licence or authorisation to teach.

The provision had read that the holder of a licence or authorisation to teach… shall surrender the licence or authorisation to teach by returning that licence or authorisation to teach to the registrar within seven days of being notified in writing by the council of the revocation.

It had also stipulated that a person who contravenes the clause commits an offence and is liable, on summary conviction in a parish court, to a fine not exceeding $500,000.