Williams, JTA joust over teacher appraisals
EDUCATION Minister Fayval Williams says the intention to have the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) conduct teacher appraisals will bring some level of order to the process across the sector. However, educators are adamant that giving that authority to the council will displace school administrators.
Williams told the Jamaica Observer last Friday that by turning over the appraisals system to the JTC, that process would be codified in law.
“We have been doing certain things in practice that’s not done across the system — it’s not done everywhere — so we want a structure that everyone understands and covers everybody in the system,” she explained.
She noted that the education ministry has been trying to convince teachers that the recently introduced appraisal document is a necessary tool to manage performance standards.
The document, prepared by the JTC, has received the nod from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), President Winston Smith advised the Observer. However, he said that the teachers’ union had major challenges with the rubric and the method of scoring.
However, Minister Williams said the assessment will not be punitive.
“My understanding is that an appraisal instrument has been around for some time and there has just been lots of objections [to it]. I took the time to understand it and the intent of it, and convince the JTA that they need to sign off on it because it’s not a punitive assessment of teachers, it’s an assessment that seeks to find weaknesses but take steps to get that teacher to address that weakness,” Williams said.
According to the minister, teachers will have the opportunity to opt out of the assessment.
“There is nothing that says they have to. It’s taking an industry that has been operating a certain way for a long period of time and is trying to get a framework in place that everybody understands,” she stated.
But the JTA president argued that in addition to flying in the face of natural justice, being put in charge of appraisals will be a logistics nightmare for the council.
“If the JTC can appraise teachers then what is the function of the chief human resource manager of the schools — the principal?” he asked.
“What you’re basically saying is that the JTC would be managing the schools and nullifying the impact of the principals. The JTC is not in the school to give guidance and support on a daily basis. As far as we are concerned, the JTC and ministry set policy and the boards guide those polices, but operational matters must be that of the principal and administration. Any attempt to interfere in that operational procedure, we would have a challenge with that,” he stressed.
Smith argued that it is impossible for the JTC to appraise all teachers in the school system within an academic year, pointing to the laundry list of responsibilities being conferred on the body.
“Can you imagine a teacher’s future being dependent on JTC approval — whether it’s a licence, or authorisation to teach — the sheer volume of teachers that will be required to be processed at one time? It is going to create a logistics nightmare,” he said.
“There is going to be need for further rethinking of the plan because, from where we sit, it’s not something that we believe is going to work for the betterment of education,” Smith argued.
The JTC Bill, which is now under review by a joint select committee of Parliament, proposes to give the council authority to monitor and ensure the compliance of registered teachers, licensed teachers and instructors, with regards to registration, licensing or authorisation to teach; professional standards; professional appraisals and to conduct professional appraisals.
The committee’s next sitting is scheduled for today at Gordon House in downtown Kingston.