JAMAICA: STEWART TO LEAD JAMAICA TEACHERS UNION, EDUCATORS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 000631

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR WHA/CAR (JMACK-WILSON) (BALVARADO) (VDEPIRRO) (WSMITH)
WHA/EPSC (MROONEY) (FCORNEILLE)
EEB/ESC/IEC/EPC (MCMANUS)
SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS AND FAS
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW
INR/RES (RWARNER)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB PGOV ECON EFIN SCUL SOCI ASEC JM XL
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: STEWART TO LEAD JAMAICA TEACHERS UNION, EDUCATORS
PONDER STRIKE FOR BACK PAY

REF: A. KINGSTON 581

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) As Michael Stewart takes the reins of the Jamaica Teachers'
Association (JTA),one of the island's largest public sector unions,
he finds himself caught between: a public education system in
disarray; an Education Ministry facing severe fiscal restraints,
demanding greater accountability for performance, and hedging on
promises of back pay; and a disgruntled membership pondering a
strike that might delay the beginning of the school year in
September. Stewart calls for better relations with the Ministry of
Education, noting that "we don't want to feel that we are constantly
under attack by our chief teacher." End Summary.

"Teach your children well..."
--------------


1. (U) On August 18, Stewart, a high school principal, took over as
president of the JTA, the labor union representing almost 23,000 of
the island's oft-maligned public school teachers. Accepting the
post at the association's annual convention in Ocho Rios, Stewart
pledged "to ensure that teachers and teaching redeem the place of
pride it once occupied." Stewart committed himself to lobbying the
Government of Jamaica (GOJ) for reduced class sizes, allowing more
students access to post-secondary education, and more scholarships
for those studying to be teachers.


2. (U) Stewart will have his work cut out for him. Despite the fact
that, excluding debt servicing, education spending constitutes
almost thirty percent of the GOJ budget, the Jamaican public
education system is widely perceived as dysfunctional, and many
consider public teachers and the JTA part of the problem. As
Education Minister Andrew Holness pointed out in his remarks to the
association on August 19, as many as one quarter of sixth grade
students were reading at a fourth grade level, while one third were
academically unprepared for secondary school. Each year, school
administrators routinely exclude almost half of 11th graders from
participating in the Caribbean Examination Council's Caribbean
Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) examinations, generally
viewed as an employment qualification certifying the holder as a
secondary school graduate. Of those who do take the examination,
barely more than half pass the English portion while just 43 percent
pass mathematics. Most families with the means to do so place their
children in private schools.


3. (U) Under its previous president, Doran Dixon, the JTA proved
ineffective in countering these trends. Calling for increased
teacher salaries while resisting efforts to tie compensation to
results in the classroom, the JTA attempted to shift responsibility
for lackluster examination results by blaming the public school
feeder system through which high-achieving students are channeled
into the island's top public high schools, leaving the remainder to
languish in overcrowded and under-resourced institutions.
Nevertheless, Porus High School, the non-elite public school Stewart
has administered as principal, has seen its test scores rise under
his leadership.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"
-------------- --------------


4. (U) Public school teachers have threatened labor action and
disruption of the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year, scheduled
for September 7, if the GOJ fails to present an acceptable formula
for compensating teachers for USD 90 million in back pay they are
owed due to a 2007 reclassification. The reclassification, which
the Jamaica Labour Party-led (JLP) government inherited from the
outgoing People's National Party (PNP) government in 2007, was
designed to make teacher salaries more competitive with those in the
private sector. As a result of the reclassification, each of the
23,000 union members is owed over USD 1,100.


5. (U) However, faced with its worst economic crisis in decades, the
GOJ is poorly situated to make good on the promise. With its
economy expected to contract by four percent in 2009, and one of the
highest levels of public sector debt in the developing world, the
GOJ has seen its Standard and Poor's debt rating downgraded and is
widely expected to announce a new agreement with the International
Monetary Fund for assistance next month (Reftel A). To avoid
increasing the USD 1.4 billion public sector wage bill, the GOJ has
already told public sector employees not to expect the seven percent
wage hike that had been promised this year.


6. (U) On August 17, the JTA rejected Education Minister Andrew

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Holness's proposal that the government pay off the back wages over
three years beginning in 2011, threatening to report the GOJ to the
International Labor Organization (ILO) and intimating some sort of
labor action that might interfere with the beginning of the new
school year on September 7. "We believe that the time of
correspondents (sic) to and fro is not helping the process of
advancing the welfare of the Jamaican teachers and...some message
must be sent," Stewart told the assembled delegates. "Normality
cannot be guaranteed for the start of the 09/10 school year..."


7. (U) In his response before the JTA's annual convention the
following day, Holness recognized that the imbroglio had damaged the
GOJ's credibility with teachers but implored his audience for
leniency given the GOJ's difficult financial straits. "This
Government wants to pay the teachers what they deserve," Holness
promised, and pointed out that teachers' wages had increased by 59
percent since the JLP came to power in 2007. Stewart responded that
the delegates would have to discuss further the GOJ proposal and the
possibility of a strike.

Conclusion and Analysis
--------------


8. (SBU) Jamaica's education problems run deep. Many public schools
are dilapidated, overcrowded, and poorly equipped, while many public
school teachers are poorly paid and blamed for poor educational
outcomes that they see as out of their control. The CSCE tracking
system channels the nation's brightest students into its best
schools and opens doors to myriad educational and professional
opportunities, while consigning the thousands that don't make the
cut to substandard institutions, poor literacy and math skills, and
bleak prospects. Given the GOJ's current economic travails, neither
major reforms nor increased revenues appear likely.


9. (SBU) Furthermore, Stewart takes the helm of a JTA with a
tarnished national image and a frustrated membership. Despite
demands for higher salaries and a greater public appreciation for
the difficulties they face, the JTA has resisted GOJ efforts to link
pay to classroom performance. Similarly, the union's current
intransigence and threats to strike over the back pay issue have not
gone over well with the media and the public given the state of
Jamaica's economy and the GOJ's budgetary constraints. As he takes
his new post, Stewart will have to decide whether to appeal to the
frustrations of his membership by escalating tensions with the
Education Ministry, or to challenge entrenched attitudes within the
JTA and meet the GOJ half way. The stakes for Jamaica's students
couldn't be higher.


10. (SBU) Finally, Minister of National Security Dwight Nelson, who
was formerly Minister of the Public Sector in the Ministry of
Finance and Public Sector, bears watching. Nelson, a trade unionist
who was appointed to the National Security Ministry in April, 2009,
retains strong ties to the trade union community and might be
expected to intervene should the prospect of a strike threaten
social stability or public safety. End Summary.

Parnell