KINGSTON, Jamaica, Aug 17, CMC -The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) begins its three-day 62nd annual conference on Monday with delegates expected to give a decision regarding the latest “improved offer” including salary increases from the government.
The conference is being held under the theme “Reformation Now: Rebuilding a Resilient Education System Buoyed by the Eternal Father & Unrelenting Unionism”.
JTA president, Mark Malabver, speaking ahead of the conference acknowledged that the parties have made progress in the negotiations adding there are still some concerns from the JTA’s perspective, ”with respect to one key item on our list of claims.
“Once we receive that new offer, we certainly will interrogate the new offer. We will also be taking that offer to the annual conference, which will be held on Monday through to Wednesday,” he added.
The Gleaner newspaper Monday quoted Malabver as saying that the Andrew Holness government has made an improved offer on key components of the JTA’s 28-point claim and the delegates will decide on them at the annual conference.
“There were some key components – some deal breakers – and we put that squarely to the government and the government has responded to some of those deal breakers,” he said, noting that the conference will also discuss the perennial problem of teacher migration ahead of the new academic year.
He said that a number of schools are advertising, and teachers who had applied to work overseas are now receiving confirmation from recruiters and have submitted their resignations as they prepare to go abroad.
“The government continues to be tone deaf to these concerns and, in the near future, I am predicting that a major crisis will come on our hands and we are going to have to now force and treat with it as it relates to teacher migration,” he said.
“Let’s be brutally frank, a teacher coming out of teachers’ college in no way can replace a teacher that has had five, 10 and 15 years under their belt in terms of on-the-job experience, in terms of professional development and mentoring,” he said.
He said many Jamaican teachers are not just migrating to the United States but also the United Kingdom.
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