Perchance there was ever an assumption to the contrary, there can hardly be a doubt that there will be no support by the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) for performance-based compensation for its members. Unless, that is, it is brought kicking and screaming to the process.

Of course, the JTA, which represents more than 20,000 state-paid teachers, will not articulate its opposition in such a forthright fashion. It will dance around the issue with fancy, but woolly, arguments about the uneven socio-economic and demographic mix of Jamaican schools making it difficult, if not impossible, to fashion standardised performance criteria.

Seeking equity in system

Indeed, the JTA, which in its role as trade union, is quite adept at winkling - and when it feels it necessary, muscling - more taxpayers' money out of the Government, will find every flaw in any proposal for setting performance standards for specific schools, or group of schools.

The excuses will range from that such as the system would be too difficult to arrange and/or manage, to arguments put by the organisation's president, Doran Dixon, and published by this newspaper yesterday.

"If we go that route, we are going to perpetuate a bad system," he said at a Gleaner Editors' Forum.

So, by Mr Dixon's thesis, taken to its logical conclusion, holding teachers accountable for their performance in the classroom and having that reflected in their compensation, can only be accomplished when there is absolute equity in the education system.

In other words, making a teacher at, say, Charlie Smith Comprehensive accountable for outcomes at that institution can only be accomplished when it and, perhaps, Immaculate High or Campion College are on the same plane.

The embrace of such notions is, in our view, the surest way to institutionalise complacency and make mediocrity ascendant. Mr Dixon's ultimate construct also misses the fundamentals of the argument put by Dr Trevor Hamilton, the international business consultant, at the Gleaner Forum: that there are several credible ways to judge outcomes in schools.

In the context of Jamaica, the objective ought to apply criteria effective to the peculiar circumstances of the teaching environment.

Measuring incremental knowledge and attitudinal/behavioural change, which impact on future performance, may be more important in one circumstance than passing an exam is in another.

"If I come to school and I am dumb and I leave and can read, that's a major success factor ... . To me, that's incremental knowledge," said Dr Hamilton.

Accountability at education ministry

Of course, the JTA has been able to wiggle its way out of accountability because facilitators in the education ministry, which, itself has not, in any fundamental way, been made to account for the shambles over which it has presided and for which taxpayers shell out over $160 million a day.

An example of how the education ministry colludes towards mediocrity is what it did just recently. It went along with the allocation of an additional $15 billion for teachers' pay as part, ostensibly, of a job-reclassification process. The ministry did not demand and nor did the JTA promise improved performance from teachers for the extra cash.

Perhaps it is time to dissolve and reconstitute the education ministry with a new focus and greater accountability - and performance-based pay.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.