Ronald Thwaites | Critical role of churches and trusts in education

A third or more of all Jamaican schools, at all levels, are owned or sponsored by 11 Christian denominations and a few trusts. They number nearly 700. Christian churches and trusts constitute the most invested private group in the education sector. Their clout will be even greater should they forge common cause with the 500 or so independent schools.

In very many instances, church schools provide the most robust and replete educational experience in the land. This is because church schools offer more values-based teaching and learning than is evident in schools with little tradition and a purely secular agenda. Of course, this is not always the case, but it is generally true. And it is an asset we need to use more.

These church and trust institutions receive substantial support from the taxpayer. They could not function otherwise. This is a good partnership. The relationship between church and state in Jamaican education needs revisiting to ensure more respect and greater collaboration.

Long before the backward and racist colonial authorities and local assemblies extended educational opportunity to black and poor Jamaicans, men and women of faith established many of the institutions we prize today. Uncountable billions of capital expenditure and donated human resources have resulted in the nodes of excellence we take for granted nowadays.

This exemplary process has its own problems, however. Coincident with government assuming responsibility for paying teachers, meeting other expenses and capital input, the religious bodies have largely reduced their influence over their schools, resigning themselves to control by the education ministry and teachers’ union, weak board activity and a few occasions for religious devotions.

ABSENCE OF A PHILOSOPHY

This has happened to our national peril. The main casualty has been the absence of a philosophy of education which transcends the material and emphasises the ethical and spiritual. Perhaps the most glaring example has been the downgrading of civics and broad citizenship education. Large numbers of young people leave school with no developed sense of their national identity or personal purpose. Go figure where the army of non-voters, uber-individualistic and social miscreants are cultivated!

Examination passes and extracurricular prowess are the gold standard for evaluating schools. But those are not enough. What about character and service? Jamaican schooling needs a sturdy philosophy centred around the principle of the common good. This is the particular charisma of religious traditions in our history. It is the antidote to individualistic secularism, absent ethical moorings, which has invaded our psyche and behaviour patterns.

We test for academic performance at almost every grade, but where do we assess positive character growth, social awareness and commitment?

Individual denominations in the education sphere are way beyond trying to proselytise those who they instruct. Nobody tried to convert Bruce Golding when he was a student at St George’s College. What he and countless others got there, at Jamaica College and other church and trust schools was a strong ethic of social responsibility and verve for engagement.

In the scandalously delayed analysis of the Patterson Commission report, the deepening of moral education at all levels of education should be a major concern. Hopefully, the fragmentation of religious bodies in Jamaica is being overcome by a shared understanding of the spiritual wasteland which is overtaking us. This is manifest in the expanding work of the Ecumenical Education Commission. Would that the political class shared the same concern?

SET THE TONE

Which leads to the issue of the composition and role of school boards. It is the duty of each board, and particularly its chairperson, to set the tone of the institution; to be the point of unity between community, parents and the school; to hold the principal and teachers accountable. Neither the central ministry nor the regional offices can substitute or overreach those roles. A strong and enthusiastic board makes for a good school.

Board membership cannot be part of political or religious patronage. The practice that a member of parliament (MP) is entitled to choose the chairperson for the schools in his or her constituency is to be rejected. A better procedure is for appointees to such sensitive and involved posts to be decided by consultation between the MP, the principal and the education officer. To politicise school boards is to deepen tribalism, weaken the school and undermine the national good.

A new concordat between Church and State ought to a sidebar of the current consideration of the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill. It should include structures of consultation for the churches in developing education policy as well as considerably more independence for school boards. And for their part, religious bodies in Jamaica must be willing to extend and deepen their involvement in the education and socialisation of God’s young people.

“To those who are on the way to destruction, the message of the Cross is foolishness; but those who are on the way to salvation see it as the proof of God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.