Dear Editor,

As an educator who was trained in Jamaica and is now teaching overseas, I have noted the upheaval that has been occurring due to the recent passage of the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill.

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and the People’s National Party (PNP), among others, are not being realistic.

The regulation of teacher education is important to promote quality educator preparation across the world, and many countries have regulatory bodies in an attempt to ensure this.

Yet the quality of teacher education in many corners of the globe is falling. Lack of maintenance and deterioration of professional standards are to be found in various programmes and policies; for example, in access or admission policies, appointment of personnel, infrastructure maintenance, and modes or styles of delivering pedagogical skills, etc.

The JTC Bill is very similar to other teacher regulations around the world and are not governed by a single system.

Regulatory bodies regarding teacher education, which originated after the middle of the 20th century, mainly perform these prime functions: provide recognition or affiliation to the teacher education institutions based on certain criteria; set standards for the infrastructure of the institutions for running the programmes; define or regulate the curricula of the programmes; and formulate guidelines for the award of certificates, diplomas, and degrees.

The nature and functions of regulatory bodies vary from country to country, keeping in mind the contextual demand of teacher education in the respective countries. Teacher education regulatory bodies are more visible in federal or decentralised countries because of the diverse features and complex nature of their teacher education systems.

Teachers who migrated from Jamaica to teach abroad are regulated more strictly than what currently obtains in the JTC Bill. Take for example Ontario College of Teachers, where I’m a member.

We should give the JTC time to develop its mandate for it to become effective in an evolving global teaching environment.

When a regulatory body of teacher education system is free from impediments that affect it and works with zeal to achieve its mandates, it can effectively increase the quality of the teacher education system.

Rodwin Green

Ontario, Canada

rodwingreen@yahoo.com