Teaching Bill To Bring Standards To Profession

Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, says the Jamaica Teaching Bill, which seeks to bring structure and standards to teaching, has been tabled in Parliament.

“Work is also advancing on amendments to the Education Act, the Children (Adoption of) (Amendment) Bill and the Child Care and Protection (Amendment) Bill,” he added.

Delivering the 2022 Throne Speech in Parliament, today (February 10), the Governor-General pointed to additional initiatives spearheaded by the Ministry of Education and Youth, such as the launch of the Yard-to-Yard Find the Child initiative.

This seeks to identify and re-engage students who did not access any of the learning modalities.

Against that background, he noted that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, “accelerated the Government’s plans to provide access to technology for all students”.

He said the Government will continue to aim for the development of creators, “rather than mere consumers of technology,” through the phased rollout of coding in primary and secondary schools, “starting with our teachers”.

“[Also], the Government’s procurement efforts, the Own Your Own Device (OYOD) programme and the One Laptop or Tablet per Child initiative together, provided approximately 150,000 devices to enable virtual learning,” the Governor General said.

This, the Governor-General noted, has been an “enormous push”, which benefited students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and other needy families.

He pointed out that the Government is steadily and safely making provisions for students to return to face-to-face classes, following the disruption of the sector because of the pandemic.