JTA distances itself from attack on Ministry of Education

The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) has moved against recent derogatory utterances from its members, which are thought to be aimed at Ministry of Education officials. The JTA and the Ministry of Education have been at a standoff since the Minister announced an intention in Parliament to make changes to teachers leave entitlement.
At separate public consultations last week, two former JTA Presidents, Doran Dixon and Paul Adams, while not identifying a target, made these remarks:

“When a little mongrel dog rush you, what you do? You front up to the mongrel and say, ‘go sit down’, because the JTA is not just a little puss, so a little mongrel nah go rush we…” former JTA president Doran Dixon.

“The Minister must be temporarily injected by cocaine…” former JTA president Paul Adams.    

However, JTA President Clayton Hall said the utterances were unfortunate and sought to distance the association from them while promising that similar pronouncements won't be repeated in the future.

“We certainly regret if there may be an interpretation that there was derogatory terms or references made on a JTA platform. I wish to indicate that the JTA does not condone that kind of behaviour and we will be indicating to persons who speak on platforms created by the JTA that they should not do that in the future,” said Mr. Hall.

Just Sunday, another past President of the JTA, Ruel Reid, called for an end to the name calling and for the negotiations between the Ministry and the teachers to take place in a more civil manner. 

Criticisms

The two former presidents of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, JTA, who have made uncomplimentary comments of Ronnie Thwaites, the Minister of Education, continue to receive criticism Monday from members of civil society. The former presidents, Doran Dixon and Paul Adams, at separate speaking engagements, have thrown stinging words at the Minister, which have been interpreted as demeaning and disrespectful.
Esther Tyson, Retired principal of Ardenne High School, is demanding that they withdraw the comments and apologize to the Minister.
She argued that the outbursts are unprofessional and send the wrong signal to the country. She wants an apology to be tendered immediately, and more cautious language used in the discussions.

“I call on the JTA to have the representatives of their organizations apologise to the Minister. These comments are sullying the noble tradition of teacher representation that the organization has developed over the years. In this crisis the responses of some of their leaders have been less than noble,” said Mrs. Tyson.

No comment

In the meantime Mr. Hall said he will not comment on leaked documents from the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) which shows some schools are not performing up to standard. Last Friday, RJR News obtained a copy of a yet-to-be-tabled NEI report which shows that among other things, 75 per cent of the 205 schools it assessed, had students whose attainment were either unsatisfactory or in need of immediate improvements.

 Mr. Hall said despite the leak, the issues highlighted in the NEI report will not deter the JTA in its current negotiations with the Ministry of Education.