In keeping with its mandate to introduce initiatives to boost student achievement and enable smoother school operations, the Education Ministry will be introducing Specialist Subject Teachers in addition to implementing a Substitute Teacher Online Platform in September 2021.

In a release on Wednesday (August 11), the ministry communicated its plan to introduce Specialist Subject Teachers at the primary level starting with 238 primary schools in September 2021 and in another 98 schools in January 2022, with an intention of later expanding to other schools.

The plan follows a series of meetings with representatives from the ministry’s seven regions and will see the deployment of Specialist Subject Teachers to focus on eight specialisations: Mathematics and Science, Language Arts and Social Studies, Language Arts and Spanish, Religious Education and Civics, Visual Arts and Drama, Physical Education and Health and Family Life Education, Resource and Technology and Music.

In addition to the ministry’s introduction of Specialist Subject Teachers, the ministry will also seek to implement a Substitute Teacher Online platform, which will allow timely request and placement of substitute teachers when needed.

According to the ministry, the platform is designed to help both the ministry and school safeguard teaching and learning contact hours by providing replacement for teachers during unavoidable short periods of absence as well as to enable principals to engage substitute teachers on a needs basis.

To qualify as a substitute teacher:

• The Teacher must be fully qualified to teach at the requisite level
• The Teacher must be of sound character
• The Teacher must not be permanently employed in the public service

The platform will allow substitute teachers to:

• Register for deployment
• Identify potential assignments
• Respond to request for assignment logged by the principal
• Submit claims for work done (through the MyHR+ platform)

The platform will allow principals to:

• Request a replacement teacher
• Select a replacement teacher
• Verify claims for payment
• Appraise the work of the substitute teacher

The platform can be accessed using the link:  http://substituteteacher.moey.gov.jm