General Secretary of the National Parent Teacher Association of Jamaica, Donovan Mayne, says the Jamaica Teaching Council Act will protect students. Mayne says teachers who have been convicted of a crime, shouldn’t be allowed back in classrooms. General Secretary of the NPTAJ, Donovan Mayne, says disciplinary issues should be reported to the Jamaica Teaching Council, as he calls for the current arrangements where matters are submitted to the school board and ministry, to be scrapped.

Mayne shares a heart-wrenching ordeal for a student, where a convicted child abuser returned to teaching duties, at a Kingston based primary school. The general secretary who was reviewing the Jamaica Teaching Council act, 2022, says these new sections will remove from the hands of the ministry of education, the dismissal of a teacher if convicted of a crime in court.

He says the new act will protect students. Meanwhile, education minister and Chair of the committee, Fayval Williams, lauded Mayne for bringing the matter to the committee.

Reporter: Justin Graham