Mark Ricketts | Reid was a big disappointment

You must never kick a man when he is down. However, during the last three years, whenever I wrote specifically on education, or generally on the economy, I took the minister to task about the direction of education. I stated my misgivings about Reid’s performance and about the inadequacy of our education and training to respond to the country’s needs. I also found the country wanting in terms of readiness for the technological age.

Even the haemorrhaging of science and maths teachers was appalling, yet, neither the Government nor the minister devised a real strategy to address this issue. Our children suffered.

When Ruel Reid was appointed senator and named to head the Ministry of Education, I was so proud of him. I rooted for him.

Yes, I was biased as a JC old boy (I went to Calabar as well) and Reid was principal of JC prior to his ministerial appointment. In addition, I was so impressed with his talents and his helping Jamaica College restore pride of place in society, that I featured him as a superachiever in my book, Jamaica Gold, Brilliance and Excellence.

However, shortly after assuming his post in the ministry, his words and actions left me disillusioned. He was far from ready to assume the role as head of so important a ministry as education, as well as be communication spokesperson and face of the Cabinet in dealings with the public.

My criticism of Reid has nothing to do with his being fired by the prime minister, it has to do with his legacy as far as misguided proposals, his lack of understanding that good education is expensive and cannot be free, and his asinine policy ideas, including insulating himself from criticism.

Also of concern, he lacked a vision to cope with Jamaica’s apartheid education system and he seemed bent on being in ‘the mould of an old-time school principal’, down in the trenches berating today’s principals and school boards, rather than elevating them to a higher vision of transforming education and training – critical drivers of Jamaica’s growth and development.

The PM should take his time to think through carefully Reid’s successor, so when the announcement is made, the Ministry of Education will have a first-rate, highly intellectual administrative executive, with years of experience, that can bridge the divide between education and training, between teacher preparation and student learning, between traditional schools’ successes and the far too many schools of left-behind, and between the relevance of current curriculum and the aspirations of tomorrow’s technology.

Jamaica is not getting value for money. It has to change. It cannot continue like this. While we brag about our declines in debt-to-GDP ratios, our national debt is stubbornly high at $1.944 trillion. Our debt increased by $2,363 billion last year, primarily due to the devaluation of the dollar. Our debt repayment of $274,446.8 billion is a significant portion of Government’s expenditure. When we request Budget increases for education, there must be trade-offs, or do we increase the national debt?

NOT A GOOD CHOICE

Education expenditure represents the largest Budget allocation. It has increased 40 per cent in the last five years, reaching $109,439.91 million currently.

Yet, our national passes for the critical subjects of mathematics and English are uninspiring and only 15 per cent of our population has tertiary education, 18 per cent has technical training, and the 67 per cent is somewhere between not trained and not certified.

Unacceptable!

There are 300,000 people receiving PATH (The Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education) this year, with increase allocation to individual families jumping 16 per cent. We are offering more transportation to schools and more school-feeding programmes to many more children. In addition, we are paying the examination fees for more of them and, if they stay in school longer, we are paying for that too.

At the rate the number of recipients and payouts are increasing, where will it end – 400,000; half a million? This makes no sense, while proclaiming prosperity.

It is clear Jamaica places little store on evaluating output and performance. As long as the minister talks a good game of promises and targets, especially if he holds the dual portfolio of education and communication, then bombast and the bully pulpit allow him to savage principals, disdain school boards, and make a mockery of auxiliary fees; stating they are not mandatory, although they proved to be the saving grace for many schools pursuing extracurricular activities.

It was such an unnecessary position for the education minister to adopt from the outset. It left schools adrift, especially those with their own economic challenges because of the lack of well-resourced old boys or parents. These schools had to develop their own strong-arm tactics with parents, literally under the threatening nose of the minister, just to survive and give their school even half a chance of avoiding shame and perceived failure.

Mr Reid’s stance was not only foolhardy, financially unwise, but bordered on Don Quixote flailing at windmills.

What I found particularly objectionable about Reid was his frequent articulation about education being free, then adding, “When I say free, I mean totally free.” This grandstanding must have been a political outreach to make headway in his recently assigned St Ann constituency.

How could Reid, knowing the size of the national debt and knowing the cost of what it will take to eradicate apartheid in education, make such a claim? More important, he knows that there are few choice schools in Jamaica that everyone wants their child to attend.

Until there are enough choice schools around, making education free would only entrench apartheid even more. The ascendant, upwardly striving, and privileged classes would use their free high school money to bolster even more their children’s prep school and outreach programmes, thereby continuing to corral a disproportionate amount of spaces in the preferred schools.

Senator Reid was not a good choice. Education is too important. Government has to do better next time.

- Mark Ricketts is an economist, author, and lecturer. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and rckttsmrk@yahoo.com