Discriminatory or necessary?

GREEN ISLAND, Hanover —The National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) has flatly rejected a suggestion, from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), for Government to withhold Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) benefits from parents who do not regularly attend PTA meetings. While the call, made by JTA President LaSonja Harrison, has received support from other quarters, NPTAJ President Stewart Jacobs described it as discriminatory. “To hold it over PATH parents that if you’re on PATH then you must come to the PTA meeting, that is not something that the NPTAJ will support — and I would say that publicly,” Jacobs told the Jamaica Observer Tuesday.

“It is discriminatory to some degree, and not everybody wants everybody to know that they are on PATH… So are you saying to me [that] what you’re going to do is stigmatise a PTA meeting now?... And so the students of those parents are going to feel a way,” he argued, his voice heavy with annoyance. During an investiture ceremony at the JTA’s 62nd annual conference held in Trelawny last Monday, Harrison argued in her speech that such a requirement could force parents to become more involved in their children’s schooling.

In making the suggestion the JTA president cited data that approximately 70 per cent of the school-age population is enrolled in PATH. “Could a requirement therefore be introduced for parents receiving PATH benefits to attend at least three-quarters of the PTA meetings held annually in order to receive their payments? This could form part of the reporting process conducted by schools,” mooted Harrison who noted that the individuals school educators want to see at parent-teacher meetings are often the ones who do not show up.

She said linking PATH benefits to meeting attendance could strengthen collaboration among schools, parents, and the National Parenting Support Commission, potentially enabling greater success in equipping parents with effective strategies to successfully raise their children. “You’re saying to me that if I have a job that prevents me from leaving my desk to come to a meeting, my child is not going to have a lunch tomorrow morning or for the next term because I never came to 70 per cent of the PATH meetings?” he countered. The NPTAJ president argued that the Government provides PATH out of its generosity and a desir…