JTA’s elections set for October
DELEGATES OF the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) have now mandated that its presidentelect elections must be held in October after the new school term begins on September 7.
Newly installed president of the JTA, Jasford Gabriel, said delegates at the 56th annual conference, by way of a resolution, provided options with which the association can solve the challenges associated with the verification of their voters’ list so that the elections can be held in October.
“This conference accepted a resolution for the voting to take place no later than mid-term in October, and so by then, we expect that a president-elect will be installed thereafter,” Gabriel said.
As it relates to the agreed process on which the elections will now be held, Gabriel said two options are available, which includes the normal process prior to COVID-19, online voting or a combination of both.
“We left the process open for either online or physical voting, whichever option will satisfy the schedule that we are working with,” he said.
Already the JTA said it has collected more than 16,000 email addresses and contact information from a possible list of 25,000 members.
Under normal circumstances, the JTA president-elect elections would be held in June while teachers are in school, but that was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic which forced its General Council, the second-highest decision-making body, to mandate that the president election be held online.
However, that option fell through largely because the JTA could not reach many of its members as physical schools closed in March, and teachers could not be contacted for verification in order to compile a final list of eligible delegates.
Principal of Golden Spring Primary School in St Andrew, Winston Smith, and Godfrey Drummond, senior teacher at Petersfield Primary School in Westmoreland, are vying for the position. The successful candidate will become the JTA’s president for the 2021-2022 administrative year.