Patricia Duncan Sutherland | Education: the last decade and the decade to come – Part 2

From my perspective, there are three key steps that must be taken if we are committed to honouring education and its centrality to human well-being and sustainable development. It requires a compelling and fundamental shift that will offer lifelong opportunities in a rapidly changing economy to unleash the potential of our people so that we can all experience prosperity.

CRATCH AN’ RUB CYAAN CURE COCOBEH

1. We must see unprecedented capital investment in our early childhood, primary and high schools. When our teachers and students go to school, they must feel that they are stepping into the future. Schools must represent a place where hope, love and respect live and are used to shape the citizen and society we want.

So what would this look like?

n Early childhood education would occur at community centres rather than at traditional schools. These centres would have spaces for not only the children, but also new mothers and elderly residents. They would be focused mainly on the social and emotional development of our children, and the students would be instructed through play and interaction, as is done in Finland and parts of Canada.

n Our primary and high schools would be colourful and modern; outfitted with round tables conducive to collaborative learning; bathrooms with showers that are clean and welcoming; playing fields that encourage our natural abilities in sports; shared performing arts facilities to hone our envied gifts; and technology to support this learning.

All our schools would be equipped with solar panels so our teachers and children can develop and create in air-conditioned rooms – Yes, AC! They must be comfortable.

WE CAN DO THIS!

2. The focus of schools must be expanded from simply a place for academic enrichment to the place where the whole child is developed. Our society, as it stands, has some deficiencies, whether in the environment at home, quality parenting skills or the time available for parenting. We must support our parents and teach the students we have, and not the students we should have.

n Our schooldays should to be extended to 5 p.m. – not with additional tests, but with clubs, sports and supervised, independent work.

n The team that supports our children must be expanded to include social workers, youth empowerment officers and HEART volunteers trained to facilitate this expanded curriculum (inclusive of skills in dispute resolution). This team, working along with our teachers, will help us to reshape our social relationships.

We will teach the current cohort of students how to be positive parents. This is a part of our long-term solution to violence in our country. It will be expensive but less expensive than the increased spend in security and justice in the long run. We must be purposeful about this.

n There must be continued preparation of our teachers for the global shift in education from the role of the teacher as the deliverer of information to the facilitator of student-centred learning and development of critical thinking skills. We must also prepare them to see their own greatness and, therefore, the greatness of our children.

As part of this thrust, through the JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation, I have and will continue to support the expansion of ‘Conversations for Greatness’ across all schools – a transformational leadership programme for adults in the school environment which addresses the mindset change required to be your best self.

n Finally, we must pay our teachers more. We must value them if we want them to value our children.

3. We must have a more concerted focus on language development. The time has come for us to publicly accept that Jamaican Creole is the first language acquired by most Jamaicans in the home and that English is our language of business. So, if we are to be genuinely bilingual as a country, then we must change the approach to teaching English in the early childhood years (up to grade two).

This requires a similar approach to what is used in Singapore for their citizens to acquire English. The many languages spoken there are recognised as their social language and, therefore, incorporated in their curricula accordingly (in the arts, in literature, in social development sessions, etc).

Our schools must be designed for the Jamaica that we have, to create the Jamaica that we want.

We can do this! THIS IS THE DECADE TO GET IT DONE!

Patricia Duncan Sutherland is the People’s National Party caretaker for South East Clarendon; and Opposition spokesperson on education and training. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com