The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) says it is not worried by the announcement that the government does not intend to hire new teachers in the near future.

Yesterday the Education Minister, Ronald Thwaites said that persons will only be employed when others leave their posts.

JTA’s president, Clayton Hall, said this is not new policy, explaining that the Ministry of Education has been using this strategy for about three years now.

Hall said the other reality is that only 30 per cent of all teachers who leave teaching college take up teaching jobs.

He said his association will only take the education ministry to task if it refuses to fill the vacancies being created and chooses to leave the nation’s classrooms without teachers.

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