Teachers deserve better pay, JTA president insists

  

The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is maintaining that the government should change its position on the proposed wage increase for teachers. 

 

Finance Minister Fayval Williams has said the government will not be able to offer more than the two per cent submitted to the workers. 

 

But the JTA has made it clear that the two per cent offer in year one of the 2025-2027 contract period is not acceptable. 

 

JTA President Mark Malabver says the association is in the process of putting together a formal response to the government's latest proposal. 

 

"We held a strain for four years when we endured, when we signed up for a wage freeze when the country was tinkering on the edge of economic boom. Fast forward to now, we are then being called upon to hold strain. Here's another interesting fact - our politicians are amongst the highest paid in the Caribbean," he pointed out. 

 

Mr. Malabver said teachers have been producing results under trying circumstances and deserve to be compensated adequately.

 

"Our teachers are the lowest paid in the Caribbean, but not withstanding that, our teachers are high-performing teachers. It's not by accident that America, that a UK, that Canada and other first-world countries come to Jamaica and recruit our teachers. And I'll advance the argument that in those countries, whenever there's a cluster of teachers and there's an award ceremony, it is our teachers, Jamaican teachers, that are dominating those awards in terms of receiving those awards. That speaks volumes about our teachers."

 

He added that data from the Ministry of Education has indicated that "over 90% of our teachers are meeting expectations or exceeding expectations", showing that the country's educators are doing "remarkably well". 

 

Mr. Malabver was speaking Wednesday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.