THE University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) has called for teachers who fall short of the requirements in the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill to be fairly assessed and given a chance to continue in the system as part of the current process of teacher development.

The university’s leadership says “bad eggs” who are not up to par should not be weeded out wholesale as the education system could find itself in a serious bind due to teacher shortage.

Making its submission on Tuesday to the parliamentary joint select committee reviewing the Bill, acting president of the university Professor Colin Gyles argued that the principles of natural justice should be used in whatever mechanism is applied.

“What we would recommend is that there be clear provisions that allow for persons who are not meeting up to the standard to be evaluated, and there is a mechanism whereby they can be fairly assessed for continuing in the profession. We would want that to be done as a part of the ongoing process of maintaining the standards within the system,” Gyles said.

“We don’t want a transition point that says, as of this date everybody must, in some way, prove that they are not a bad egg, and if they can’t do so, they are out of the system. That could create problems for the entire system because we could suddenly find that we do not have enough teachers in the system and we do not want to do that,” he added.

Professor Gyles further argued that breaches of the disciplinary code and development plans within the schools should address those issues when they arise.

“Where those weaknesses and actions are egregious enough to warrant disciplinary action, such should be taken, but where it doesn’t reach to that level, developmental opportunities can be provided to remedy the defects. Some of those bad eggs can be remediated,” he insisted, when asked by minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister Floyd Green whether the university believes there should be a framework to remove teachers from the classroom who are unfit and are doing more harm than good for students.

Meanwhile, UTech’s dean of the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies, Professor Charmaine Barrett, questioned whether the suggested defacto registration and normalisation of teacher status takes into account these bad eggs in the profession. She said it is not assumed that all teachers currently working in the education system meet the fit and proper criteria and qualify for licensing.

Professor Barrett said while the university would refrain from giving any general recommendations as to how to manage teachers who are not meeting the standards for teaching, there must be room for reform.

Furthermore, UTech has cautioned against crafting the Bill in such a restrictive manner that it is inflexible in instances in which there is shortage in particular subject areas. The university has also questioned whether the new designation of who a teacher is will remove the existing categorisation of teachers in the Education Act, which speaks to pretrained graduates, trained graduate specialist teachers, and master teachers.

“If this is indeed the case, is it feasible to have the total cohort of teachers in all subject areas as trained graduates with a bachelor’s degree in education, and what of those in the system who do not now possess a bachelor’s degree in education, is there any provision for in-service training?” Professor Barrett asked.

At the same time, UTech called attention to the dual role of the JTC to provide oversight as well as regulate, describing it is an extensive mandate which could cause a conflict of interest. It believes that for good governance central oversight bodies such as the JTC are most effective if they are independent of regulatory bodies.