School Boards can request extensions for teachers scheduled to proceed on retirement

Durrant Pate/Contributor

In a move designed to cull any fallout from the migration of teachers from Jamaica’s education system, school principals have been given pre-approval for hiring replacement teachers.

They will be hired to clear vacancies and temporary posts funded by the Ministry of Education and Youth. The  move, which was announced by Education Minister Fayval Williams during a press conference yesterday (August 22), is to create greater efficiency in the hiring of new teachers and reduce the time it would usually take to approve appointments between the ministry and schools.

She made the point that “the teaching profession, like any other profession, has attrition annually. We do not know [why], because our teachers are under no obligation to tell us why they are resigning. It is a personal decision, and we respect that”.

The minister, who provided details of the initiative advised that schools should continue to submit formal requests for appointments, which will be responded to by the respective regional offices.

Williams noted that a facility has been created for school boards to request extensions for teachers who are scheduled to proceed on retirement, effective September 1, 2022, and beyond.

Short supply of teachers

According to her,“[they must] have performed well, based on their last performance appraisal report, to fill areas of specialisation at the secondary school level, for which there is a short supply of teachers, determined by the response to advertisements or reported lack of suitability of respondents by the school board”.

School boards are also granted approvals to employ teachers using the part-time facility.

The minister added that “these would [also] include teachers who would have retired since January 2018, and beyond, and have performed well based on their last performance appraisal report, prior to their retirement”.

She pointed out that the facility allows up to 20 hours of work for areas of specialisation at the secondary level where there is a short supply of teachers or as determined by the response to advertisements.

Engaging final year student-teachers

In the meantime, the ministry has made provisions for schools to engage final-year student-teachers from accredited institutions to fill areas of specialisation that have a short supply of teachers. These teachers will be employed temporarily and paid in the category of Pre-Trained Teachers.

Other provisions include redeploying staff or increasing the number of teaching sessions of a staff member and merging smaller classes to reduce teacher demand for a subject area. Utilising the ‘Blocked Timetable’ approach, where all or a subset of teachers for a subject area are timetabled at the same time to ensure all students are being taught by a trained teacher through regrouping, can also be considered.

Williams emphasised that, while the assessment of teacher movements within the sector continues, the ministry “always has to ensure we have replacement teachers”.

READ: Education system in limbo as 167 teachers resign within two months