By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorTHE MINISTRY of Education will on Friday launch its much-anticipated 'pilot programme' in a number of schools which could determine whether teachers' pay should ultimately be tied to performance in the classrooms.
The programme will involve a special sample of schools in Regions 1 and 5 'ranging in type, size and location'. Training workshops for supervisors and principals, as well as formal testing of the document, is to be part of the familiarisation process that should spread over six weeks.
Region 1 comprises schools in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew as well as a portion of St. Thomas, while Region 5 covers Manchester and St. Elizabeth.
"I think pay-for-performance is something whose time has come," notes Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson. "It is a win-win for the system... for teachers and students alike. It has been tried in other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States and has worked successfully. This is important for modern education and is the way to go... I really can't see a downside to it."
JTA CAUTIOUS
Mrs. Henry-Wilson said her Ministry would be working closely with the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) so far a reluctant ally to get "them to come on board in what I am convinced is the way forward for education in Jamaica."
"We have created a policy document which we have shared with the JTA," the Minister added. "It talks about teaching skills, leadership and management characteristics; it goes through a whole series of competencies that we think that people should be measuring as teachers."
Mrs. Henry-Wilson acknowledged that the Government, which had wanted to get the pilot programme off the ground from as early as January, was forced to change the date to April, conceding that everything had not yet been in place.
"We are running a little late," she said. "We may not start at all levels at once. Also, we need to set up a mechanism in the Ministry so that the evaluation is properly done and that we have a system for recording whatever the evaluation is and providing feedback."
EVALUATION IMPORTANT
Senior officer with the Education Ministry, Jasper Lawrence, said a broad-based committee comprising the JTA, the Education Ministry and other stakeholders have had the chance to evaluate what the programme entails.
But with Jamaica bent on patterning its system off what is being practised in other jurisdictions, the Education Ministry may well heed a word of caution from a New York State school administrator on the wisdom of having a pilot programme to test performance pay.
"One thing that will not work," he said, "is a small pilot programme, later to be expanded, since this would almost inevitably incur resentment toward those few teachers selected to participate or to be given awards. Unless you plan carefully and include your entire teaching corps in an evaluation plan that it helps develop, your merit pay plan is doomed to failure."
Staff Reporter Glenda Anderson also contributed to this story.
