ETOC reports progress in implementation of education reform recommendations

The Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC) has announced that 47 per cent of the 365 recommendations from the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission report have now been implemented.

Speaking at its quarterly press conference today, ETOC Chairman Dr Adrian Stokes reported a four-percentage-point increase from the 43 per cent implementation rate shared in July.

According to him, 18 additional initiatives were fully implemented, bringing the total number of fully implemented recommendations to 166, while gains were noted across governance, finance, infrastructure and early childhood education.

“Progress during the period was driven mainly by gains in governance, up 900 basis points or nine percentage points; gains in early childhood, up 11 percentage points; infrastructure up nine percentage points. These are the pillars that led to the overall increase in progress for the reporting period.”

He revealed, however, that one initiative still lags behind.

“So that initiative relates to the Early Childhood Commission doing their annual assessment on young children for learning challenges. They are in fact carrying out higher-order tertiary screening on these kids, and I have been reliably informed that by the time of our next report, the commission should be right back on track.”

ETOC is also seeking to strengthen the talent pipeline into the teaching profession by attracting university students to teaching through tuition support and guaranteed employment.

“The ministry is also strengthening teaching capacity through continuous professional development and creating clearer opportunities for professional growth by linking licence renewal or registration to ongoing training. These are very, very commendable outcomes for the period,” Stokes said.

Strengthening governance across the school system is also being championed as a central element in improving the composition and performance of school boards.

This will include recruiting people with the requisite skill sets and providing remuneration for those who serve on school boards.

“First, we're seeking to recruit board members with competencies more aligned to each school's deficiencies. We're not just trying to have or recruit people for recruitment's sake, but each school has particular needs, and therefore we have to ensure that the skill sets that are required in the school are the ones that are being promoted.

“The second thing that we're doing and this is very important, it is new, is to introduce the payment of fees for independent board directors. I am pleased to report that the Ministry [of Education] and the National Council on Education have launched a pilot programme to pay fees to board directors in selected schools,” he added.

- Karen Madden

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