WATCH: Holness adamant JTC Bill will become law Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

Prime Minister Andrew Holness says despite his Administration’s struggle to implement the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill, due to wide-scale criticisms, it will be passed into law.

Holness hit back at critics of the Bill, arguing that it will bring order and form to the profession, as well as make teachers more marketable.

“It is before the Parliament now, we going through the process, it is being debated, but it is our intention to have that Bill passed,” he declared.

The vow to implement the JTC Bill was made by the prime minister at the Education and Youth Ministry’s face-to-face Town Hall meeting dubbed ‘Education: Time for Action!’, at the Jamaica College auditorium in St Andrew on Friday.

Under the JTC Bill, which is aimed at regulating the teaching profession, it is being recommended that persons found guilty of teaching without the requisite licence should be fined some $500,000.

The definition of a teacher, as defined in the Bill, is also of much contention, as the educator must have completed a bachelor’s degree in education or its equivalent or, alternatively, the individual must have a first degree with a teaching diploma.

But speaking last month at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) annual conference, its newly installed President, La Sonja Harrison, vowed to oppose the passage of the JTC Bill into law, describing it as seeking to oppress JTA members.

On Friday, Holness rubbished such suggestions from critics of the Bill.

“We developed the (JTC) Bill. It went through a long process of consultation, we reassured all the stakeholders that the Bill was not intended to criminalise anyone,” he indicated.

“It wasn’t intended to take away the power of the teacher in the school or the classroom. It wasn’t intended to overburden the teacher with regulations.

“It was about empowering the teacher in an orderly, structured way to give order and form to the profession of teaching, in the same way that there is order and form to the profession of medicine, the profession of nursing, the profession of accounting. That was the intent!” Holness charged.

Though admitting that there is still debate about the JTC Bill, despite the Government’s assurances, he remained resolute in his stance of getting it implemented, noting that any opinion poll will show that he is the prime minister who has the capacity to get things done.

Meanwhile, the prime minister insisted that the JTC Bill “will only improve the profession”, making teachers more marketable.

“Once there is a system that can be standardised, our teachers become more marketable.

“But once there is a system that is also standardised, it would mean that standards are set, and once you set standards, you start to enter upon the conversation about quality,” stated Holness

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