The People’s National Party (PNP) on Tuesday said that while it supports regulation of the teaching profession, it is concerned that several sections of the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill could result in the unfair targeting of local teachers and push more educators to seek jobs overseas.

“This is not a supportive system, which is what a country intends when it implements a teaching council, it is supposed to be developmental, but this seems hostile and punitive,” Dr Kenneth Russell, PNP caretaker for St Ann South East, said at a press conference held at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in St Andrew.

Russell was one of several educators in the PNP camp who shared concerns – from the application process and professional development requirements to hefty fines and snap investigations – along with recommended fixes regarding the legislation which was approved by the Senate last Friday.

The landmark legislation — which was piloted by Minister of Education Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon —establishes the JTC as a statutory body which will regulate the sector and issue licences to teachers.

READ: After two decades of deliberation legislation to regulate teaching profession approved by Senate

Caretaker for St Catherine East Central, Raymond Pryce said the sections outlining the legal process which teachers will be subject to violated natural justice as it did not provide legal aid, and even protected accusers.

“There is no language in the bill that guarantees that the teacher will be informed of who made the complaint or when the complaint is made or allowed to respond before investigation begins. Teachers may be investigated without their knowledge, without knowing the source or the nature of the allegation,” Pryce warned.

He also argued that there was no provision for filtering out frivolous complaints and any complaint was enough to trigger an investigation.

Citing what he indicated were draconian punishments, Pryce said: “Penalties include suspension or revocation of license, public disclosure of disciplinary outcomes, and fines up to $1.5 million. We find that this is onerous.

“And, of course, imprisonment for practicing without a license. The punishments are extreme, especially when there is no tiered approach to distinguish between a minor infraction or serious misconduct,” he said.

Pryce also pointed out the risk of “double jeopardy” in which a teacher could be cleared of an accusation by a school board and still be prosecuted by the teaching council. He maintained that all of these issues must be fixed before the law could be satisfactorily passed.

For her part, Romani Lewis, caretaker for St Catherine Central, contended that using words like “fit and proper” and “competent” without effectively defining them in the legislation left the door open for bias and discrimination.

“This gives the Jamaica Teaching Council unchecked discretion; a teacher could be rejected or deregistered based on vague or personal interpretation of what fit and proper means– teachers can be denied a license or face disciplinary actions without knowing what standard they are being held to,” she said.

The PNP also took issue with the new application process, which indicates that teachers must be registered and licensed every five years, describing it as too bureaucratic.

“This double approval process will increase career risk. [It] requires the teachers to apply for registration and then apply for a separate license for teaching. If we plan to put our teachers through a lot of processes then this might deter them,” Dr Andre Haughton, economics lecturer and caretaker for St James West Central, said.

Haughton added that not only should these two processes be merged for ease of access, the five-year licensing period should be extended to 10 years.

He also described the three-month window for license renewal as “unrealistic”, maintaining that it should be pushed to at least six months.

Haughton also called for the requirement for a police record to be produced with each five-year licensing period to be reduced to once, and only on reasonable suspicion.

Of further concern to the PNP was the potential cost of continuous professional development, or courses, which teachers will be mandated to participate in if they want their licenses renewed.

Ethnie Miller Simpson said this could lead to increased costs for teachers and said, aside from license renewal, there were no real benefits included in the bill for complying, making it onerous and expensive. Miller Simpson also pointed out that it could disproportionately affect rural educators.

“There is no guarantee in the bill that continuous professional development programmes will be affordable, freely provided or accessible across Jamaica— the implication of this of course is that failure to comply even for financial or access reasons may result in loss of license and loss of livelihood,” Miller Simpson said.

She called for the bill to mandate that all required continuing professional development (CPD) courses be free or fully subsidised for public sector teachers; grant professional development credit for in-service accomplishments such as mentoring; create a national CPD portal accessible both online and offline, ensuring equity for rural teachers; and provide a six-month grace period after license expiry for completing CPD.

Opposition Spokesperson on Education Damian Crawford meanwhile repeated concerns he expressed in the Senate that the bill included far too many punishments for teachers while, according to him, absenteeism, transport, food insecurity, limited tools and parental support were the main reasons why the school system was crippled locally.

He maintained that the teachers were not to blame for the resultant low grades being seen locally and speculated that the bill was just being pushed through to meet election quotas.