JAMAICA Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver said Wednesday that it was unfortunate that another school year is just around the corner and long-standing issues with educators’ wages have not been settled.

Malabver said teachers were looking forward to receiving official documentation from the Government Friday, indicating a favourable revision of their wage package.

“I know that a number of teachers are unhappy with respect to salaries and conditions of service. Where we are now is that we went to negotiations [Tuesday] with the Ministry of Finance. They have placed an offer on the table. We are expecting that the offer will be formalised in writing and we can take it to our members [to vote on]. What I can say is that there has been some improvement,” Malabver told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the needle shifted during Tuesday’s meeting with respect to one particular item of concern among teachers, but suggested that there are concerns about another important item.

“We have asked the ministry to have another look at that, and hopefully they can update or upgrade their offer in that department so that we can formally put it to our members next week. The teachers would like to see the end of negotiations,” he said.

“They are anxious, but we continue to maintain that our teachers must be paid a salary in keeping with their value and their work,” he pointed out.

The JTA president expressed that if the members say, “Continue to negotiate”, the association will do exactly that.

“That is exactly where we will have to go if they are dissatisfied with the offer. And if they say ‘accept’, we are duty-bound to formally accept the offer. We are going to put it clearly in the hands of the delegates, and they will ultimately be the ones to make the decision.”

In the meantime, Malabver said that based on pronouncements coming out of the Ministry of Education and from conversations with school administrators in western Jamaica, many schools will not be ready in time for the new school year which starts in September.

“The physical schools will not be ready to accommodate students for classes, and for me, that is unfortunate. I certainly believe that there was ample time to get the schools up and running in time,” he said.

“I think firm deadlines should have certainly been given, and the necessary oversight mechanisms that were absent should have been in place to ensure that repairs were effected in time for the new school year. That has created a sort of balloon effect, because whilst a lot of work is going on in that side of the island, the other side of the island needs to get some focus as well.”

At the same time, he has given some credit to the Ministry of Education for “taking steps to alleviate the funding crisis in some of our schools”.

“A number of schools will get some relief. The primary schools will get some amount of relief. Our special needs institutions will also get a bump up in terms of funding for these institutions. At the high school level, there still is a lot to be desired.

“I would like for the Government and the Ministry of Education to get to a point where we can truly fund our institutions,” he said.

And for parents anxious and struggling, Malabver advised them to use their resources wisely. “I just want to caution parents not to go and spend money buying up all of the books all at once. They should engage the respective schools, they should engage the respective teachers, to make a determination as to which school books are critical, which supplemental books they should purchase versus which ones they don’t have to purchase at this time. Because we understand [the issues with] finances,” he said.