During a recent CVM Television discussion featuring Jamaica Teachers’ Association President La Sonja Harrison, interviewer Tyrone Reid accused “you educators” of “just being gatekeepers” as Harrison attempted to distinguish between a pre-trained teacher, a pre-trained graduate, and a trained teacher.

The implication is difficult to miss: perhaps the profession has been keeping people out unnecessarily. And just like that, Jamaica has discovered a new villain in the education system: the gatekeeper.

But before we rush to tear down the gate, perhaps we should ask a more uncomfortable question: What exactly is the gate protecting? Because every serious profession has one.

We do not accuse the medical profession of “gatekeeping” because someone with an impressive knowledge of biology cannot simply walk into a hospital and begin treating patients. We do not call it gatekeeping when an engineering graduate is expected to meet professional requirements before practising. We do not demand that the legal profession abandon its standards because someone has read enough law to feel qualified to represent clients.

We understand the principle. Knowledge alone does not make someone a professional. So why do we seem so willing to suspend that principle when it comes to teaching?

Let us be clear: Jamaica needs talented graduates and experienced industry professionals in its classrooms. A mathematician can bring depth to mathematics. An engineer can make physics come alive. An accountant can give students practical insight into business and finance. A technology professional can bring real-world relevance to a subject that otherwise risks becoming abstract. These professionals have something valuable to offer. Yet there is a difficult truth at the heart of this debate: Being an expert in a subject does not automatically make you an expert in teaching that subject.

Teaching is not merely the delivery of information. It is a profession built around the complex science and practice of learning. Teachers are expected to plan instruction, assess learning, differentiate for diverse learners, manage classrooms, identify misconceptions, provide feedback, understand child and adolescent development, adjust instruction, and create environments in which students can actually learn. That expertise does not magically appear when someone walks through a classroom door carrying a university degree.

And this is where the language of “gatekeeping” becomes dangerous.

If every attempt to maintain professional standards in the Jamaican classroom is labelled gatekeeping, we risk turning professional preparation into an unnecessary obstacle rather than recognising it as a safeguard.

There is, of course, legitimate gatekeeping. Any profession can become unnecessarily restrictive. Jamaica should absolutely examine whether its pathways into teaching are unnecessarily cumbersome and whether talented people are being excluded simply because they did not follow a traditional route.

But there is a vast difference between removing unnecessary barriers and removing necessary standards. Those two things should not be confused.

Perhaps the problem is not that “you educators” are guarding the gate too closely. Perhaps the problem is that we have spent too little time explaining why the gate exists in the first place. And perhaps we should also ask what happens when we lower the standards in the name of filling vacancies at a time when there is a shortage of teachers. Who bears the consequences?

Not the policymakers.

Not the television commentators.

Not the politicians.

The students do.

They sit in classrooms and experience the consequences of instructional decisions made by adults who may or may not have been prepared to make them. That is why this debate cannot simply be about getting more people into classrooms. It must be about getting competent professionals into classrooms. Jamaica should definitely welcome new talent into teaching. But let us stop pretending that professional preparation is an act of exclusion.

The gate is not the enemy. We cannot dismantle the gate simply because someone has convinced us that having a gate is the problem. There is something on the other side of it that is far more important than the people trying to get through.

Our children are waiting.

They deserve more than someone who knows the subject. They absolutely deserve someone who also knows how to teach it.

Nickiesha Findley, M.Ed. is an educator with over 17 years’ teaching experience both locally and internationally.