EDUCATION Minister Fayval Williams is dispelling any questionable remarks concerning the definition of teacher described in the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill.

During a sit-down interview with the Jamaica Observer recently, Williams argued that educators should possess the necessary qualifications to effectively teach the nation’s children.

Section 24 of the Bill defines a teacher as a person who has successfully completed a bachelor’s degree in education or its equivalent, or a first degree with a post-graduate diploma in education in an educational teaching programme recognised in the country in which the person is qualified.

“It’s a minimum standard to be a teacher. You’re talking about persons coming into the classrooms and they’re having students all the way through to age 18 in our high schools,” said Williams.

“You want the best, you want people who are knowledgeable in the subject matter who would have passed the subject matter at a high level to be teaching our students and so that’s a minimum standard,” she added.

Williams explained that educators have been making a concerted effort to gain qualifications for teaching .

“If you look at what exist now in the teaching profession over the years, believe it or not, our teachers have been upgrading themselves. There are very few teachers who do not have a bachelor’s degree right now in the teaching profession,” she said.

Referring to teachers who have not yet obtained a degree, Williams noted that the legislation provides for a transition period of 12 months.

“When I look at the cadre of persons in the early childhood sector, many do have a first degree, believe it or not; but there is still a maybe a 50 per cent of them that don’t. We have to work with those persons now to get them up,” she said.

“The Government ought to take greater steps to ensure that we have government-funded infant schools or infant departments. We are not saying that private persons can’t have the basic schools in communities but in those basic schools we ought to be seeing more and more trained professionals,” she said.

Last month, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and legislators sparred over several provisions in the Bill which included the definition of teacher and specific academic requirements to continue in, or enter the profession.

In a detailed review of the Bill, the JTA questioned whether the intent was to rid the profession of pre-trained teachers en masse, given that most, if not all, basic school teachers do not have a bachelor’s degree — the proposed starting point for entry into the profession.

The JTA President Winston Smith said the definition of teacher would “wipe out” all teachers who now only hold a diploma.

“If this Bill, in its current form, is allowed to go through it will in effect remove the persons with a teaching diploma, the person who has qualifications from the VDTI (Vocational Training Development Institute), and persons with certificates in education. This Bill, if enacted, would remove those persons the minute it is signed into law,” he had said during the sitting of the joint select committee reviewing the Bill.