Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

In an effort to assist with upgrading the island's 17,000 teachers who do not have a first degree, the Mico University College is to establish nine distance - learning centres across the island by September.

This was revealed yesterday by Dr. Claude Packer, principal of the 172 year-old institution.

"We recognise that there are more than 17,000 teachers to be upgraded. Lots of them are across Jamaica teaching. They have their families, they have their commitments (and) they can't leave their jobs to come to Kingston," Dr. Packer told The Gleaner yesterday.

"So what we are going to do is to go across Jamaica and establish centres," said Dr. Packer.

The principal said some of the centres will be located in St. Ann and Manchester, among other parishes.

"We are going to rural Jamaica where the teachers are in the bushes such as Mocho and Chapelton (in Clarendon) where teachers can't come to Kingston but they may be willing to study in the evenings," said the principal.

He noted that adjunct faculty members will be employed and trained. The plan, he said, is to have 100 teachers studying in each centre. The upgrading of teachers was a recommendation made by the Task Force Report on Education.

Meanwhile, Dr. Packer said only a few teachers had been exposed to university mathematics and that was why the performance of students in that area was dismal.

New learning centre

To this end, the principal of the oldest teachers' college in the English-speaking western world said a new learning centre is to be established on the campus. He noted that there would be a floor for mathematics, science and technology.

"We want to create a new culture in teaching - a scientific approach so that they learn to use indigenous materials to create work," said Dr. Packer.

The principal said if Jamaica was serious about education, it had to invest heavily in its teachers.

"The whole business of donmanship in a community cannot build a community. You can't create in a community the values and attitudes that are important to life. Teachers do that because they touch people's lives," Dr. Packer told The Gleaner.

Meanwhile, Dr. Packer said a number of schools are failing because of a lack of leadership. He noted that principals should be trained to manage schools and money, to understand human resource development, among other things. To this end, he noted that Mico offers a diploma in School Administration and Leadership.

As of September this year, all entrants to the Mico University College will be pursuing four-year degree programmes in areas such as primary, secondary and special education. The diploma programme is to be phased out by 2010.