The Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) is playing a pivotal role in the strategic implementation of the Digital Jamaica Programme, in partnership with the European Union (EU), to reshape the nation’s education sector and position teachers and students to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital society.
Speaking with JIS News, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the JTC, Dr. Winsome Gordon, said the initiative is not merely about technology but about equipping educators and learners with the competencies to navigate and contribute meaningfully to a knowledge driven world.
“Going forward, the JTC wants to move with easily accessible, good-quality knowledge. And this is what is important about Digital Jamaica. There is no way we can escape engagement, and we do not want to escape engagement in digital transformation. Just that we would like to use it strategically, because we must remember always to be human beings and we must stay human beings in all of the digital change,”
Dr. Gordon asserted. Dr. Gordon noted that the partnership with the EU Union was both timely and strategic, coming on the heels of the COVID 19 pandemic.
While Jamaica had been advancing at a measured pace into the digital space, the onset of the pandemic accelerated the adoption and application of technology, ensuring that education remained on course during a period of unprecedented disruption.
She added that the EU partnership provided the opportunity to continue the acceleration into the use of technology by ensuring updated policy. It also ensured and trained capacity for institutionalisation of the integration of technology to buttress equity, inclusiveness and ICT competencies in educational institutions.
At the centre of the JTC’s mandate under the Digital Jamaica Programme, is the professional development of teachers, ensuring that digital tools are used strategically to enhance learning outcomes.
Dr. Gordon explained that the teaching profession remains the “pivot of any nation”, and for sustainable change, educators must be empowered with accurate, useful information, while also generating new knowledge for the digital space.
“We don’t want to be only consumers. We want to be generators of knowledge. Jamaica is full of new knowledge that we have not even started to share with the world,” she noted.
Dr. Gordon disclosed that this transformation is being guided by the revised Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Competency Framework for Teacher Education, first developed in 2017 in collaboration with UNESCO.
Along with support from the EU, the framework has been enriched and integrated into teacher-training curricula across publicly funded colleges islandwide. Existing programmes have been strategically enhanced to embed ICT competencies, with the JTC providing mentorship and in service training to bridge gaps.
Teachers’ college graduates entering the classroom are equipped with digital skills essential for national development and global competitiveness.
Highlighting the scale of the initiative, Dr Gordon informed that 630 early childhood trainers have already been prepared under a “trainer of trainers” approach, with plans to reach 10,000 early-childhood and primary-school teachers by 2027.
The programme also speaks to the ethical use of technology, instilling standards of dignity and respect in the digital space.
“We speak to the ethics of the digital space – how to use it, when to use it, and not to abuse it, while maintaining dignity and respect for each other,” Dr. Gordon said.
The JTC’s vision extends beyond classrooms to a national framework where accurate, real-time data informs education policy and practice.
Dr. Gordon recalled an incident in Switzerland where a friend was with his children who were out of school for two weeks. The authorities in Switzerland swiftly intervened and enquired about the children not enrolled in school.
“Jamaica’s aspiration is to achieve similar precision through digital integration. Using the digital space to advance education is a phenomenon and we ought to embrace it,” she said.
The Church Teachers’ College in Manchester has already pioneered integration of the enriched ICT programme, with other teacher-training institutions following suit.
Dr. Gordon expressed confidence that within the next decade, Jamaica will produce cohorts of teachers fully immersed in digital competencies, preparing students to be “comparable to students anywhere in any First-World country in terms of their knowledge and management of ICT”.
Digital Jamaica is more than a programme; it is a national commitment to resilience, inclusivity, and innovation. By equipping teachers and students with digital skills, Jamaica is laying the foundation for a society that is both globally competitive and deeply rooted in human values.
