Jamaican teachers don’t need to be professionalized — the state needs to catch up

For decades, one of the gaps in Jamaica’s education system has been the absence of a unified, statutory professional framework governing how teachers are registered, developed, supported, and held accountable across the sector. From that perspective, the intent — to strengthen standards through registration, licensing, and professional oversight—is understandable and defensible.

That said, I remain deeply uncomfortable with the language being used to advance this reform.

The current narrative risks minimizing a profession that has, in truth, professionalized every other profession in this country. Teaching is not a field in need of moral correction or public disciplining. It is a vocation that has carried Jamaica for nearly three centuries—often under conditions of chronic underinvestment, overcrowded classrooms, limited resources, and inconsistent institutional support.

Every leader, scholar, doctor, lawyer, engineer, public servant, and entrepreneur Jamaica has produced passed through the hands of Jamaican teachers. Long before formal regulatory bodies existed, teachers upheld standards of conduct, integrity, discipline, and professionalism that shaped the nation’s civic culture. In many communities, the teacher has long been the gold standard of professionalism — reflected in their dress, language, deportment, ethical restraint, and moral authority.

To suggest, even unintentionally, that teaching is now becoming a profession is to rewrite history.

I want to be clear: the framework itself is not the problem.

There is real value in:

• establishing a regulatory body to oversee teacher registration, licensing, and standards;

• implementing a licensing regime with renewal cycles to reinforce accountability;

• requiring mandatory registration to protect quality and professionalism;

• articulating clearer professional standards, appraisal systems, and continuous professional development pathways;

• strengthening peer learning through initiatives such as the Lead Teacher Programme; and

• codifying a formal code of ethics that clarifies educators’ obligations to students, colleagues, and society.

These are sensible, modern governance tools. They are not inherently threatening, nor are they an indictment of teachers.

The concern lies in how this professionalization is being introduced—and how teachers are being positioned publicly in the process.

When the reform is framed using language such as “uplift”, “upgrade”, or “professionalize teaching”, it carries an implicit suggestion that teachers were previously deficient, under-trusted, or operating below professional standards. That implication does not align with Jamaica’s educational history or lived reality. Teachers do not need to be told they are becoming professionals. They need to be told the state is finally catching up to what they already are.

Professionalization should feel like recognition and protection, not correction by threat. If licensing requirements, compliance mechanisms, and enforcement powers are framed in an overly punitive way — or if the public narrative suggests teachers are the problem rather than the foundation — the policy risks undermining morale, trust, and buy-in. No profession thrives under suspicion, and no reform succeeds without partnership.

Teachers deserve to be treated with respect for the work they have already done and continue to do — often quietly, sacrificially, and with little public affirmation. Any reform that fails to honour that legacy risks weakening the very profession it claims to strengthen.

What is needed now is a softer landing in the narrative—one that affirms teachers as professionals first, partners in reform second, and subjects of regulation only where truly necessary. The law should be framed not as the creation of professionalism, but as the formal recognition, standardization, and protection of a professionalism that has long existed.

That distinction is not semantic.

It is foundational.

And it matters.

Dr. Leo Gilling is a criminologist, educator, and diaspora policy advocate. He writes The Gilling Papers, where he examines policing, public safety, governance, and community-based solutions in Jamaica and across the African diaspora. Send feedback to editorial@oldharbournews.com