Hyacinth Bennett Calls for Removal of Non Performing Teachers

Government Senator, Hyacinth Bennett, has called for the removal of “non-performing” teachers, who fail to effectively contribute to the academic development of Jamaica’s youth.
Making her contribution in the State of the Nation Debate in Gordon House on Friday (October 9), Senator Bennett noted that while the majority of the island’s teachers and principals “do their utmost best” to educate the nation’s children “in trying circumstances”, and that the highest commendations are in order for these persons, lamented the “non performing teachers”, whom she contended do “very little effective work” but, “thankfully… are in the minority.”
Citing revelations made at a recent sitting of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that 10,000 students, deemed illiterate, had been placed in first form in secondary institutions, she said that this was a “most distressing blot on the teaching profession.” To this end, she urged that non-performing teachers not be tolerated in the system.
“I want to say to principals who know about them, who know their lack of work, do not tolerate teachers, who are merely filling posts with their names and their bodies, and have no will. No intention to educate Jamaica’s children. There should be no refuge… no safe haven for teachers who are not prepared to educate the children (and) to do their best in this regard,” she stated.
“I think (that) if these few non-performing teachers do not shape up, and if they do not make it their business to improve on what they have to offer, their skills and their attitudes, it is not unreasonable to suggest that they should be shipped out of the teaching profession. Those (teachers) who have worked tirelessly to build a reputable teaching profession, I do not think they should sit idly by and allow that reputation to be tarnished by the few who are not holding up their hands,” she added.
Senator Bennett also noted, with concern, what she described as the “usual litany of defence arguments” resonating regarding reported shortcomings in the education system as regards educating students, and challenged that solutions, in the form of a “revolution”, be found to address these.
Senator Bennett also charged school boards, education officers, parents, and students themselves, to assume responsibility for achieving the targeted academic outcomes, stating: “I really believe that the time has come for no one to be left out of the system of accountability.”