Ronald Thwaites | We not ready

On October 16, 2018, I moved the following motion in the House of Representatives: “Be it Resolved that this Honourable House debate the desirability of teaching Jamaican Standard English as a second language, given the demonstrable fact that most children are initially familiar only with Jamaica Creole as their Native Tongue.”

Four years have passed and, predictably, there has been no debate on this and most other matters of public importance. Parliament remains smug in its own irrelevance. The ordinary representative has no control or influence over the agenda, and is neutered by the hegemony of the House leader and the Speaker.

All while the majority of Jamaican students do not understand much of the teaching offered them, but will nevertheless be promoted to further failure this September.

I am grateful to hear from UWI sources, who are ready to implement the language revolution, that there is lately a stirring of support from the Government.

Similarly, the resolution encouraging the expansion of the school feeding programme, with an emphasis on using healthy and nutritious local produce, dating from 2016, ended up in the recesses of the useless Economy and Production Committee (did it ever even meet?), from which it will never emerge.

And the children will remain improperly fed, if at all; the farmers will suffer too; but the bag juice has no calories. Is school feeding even a priority of the agriculture ministry? Could it be, when we have wasted most of the mango and banana crops?

These two efforts are mentioned as a prelude to treating with transformation of the early-childhood sector and an effective school feeding programme. As should be obvious, the legislature and too many of us hide from confronting the desperate state of education.

Unfair? Point me to even one afternoon of parliamentary time devoted to debate the expensive and expansive Patterson Report. To which select committee has it been referred for consideration since last September? Please direct me to the cogent critique of its findings by the Opposition, the associations of teachers, parents or business. One thoughtful primary-school teacher told us at the UWI’s vice-chancellor’s forum last week that most of her colleagues have not even heard of or seen this transformative report.

Clearly, we not ready.

FUNDING

This past week, several high-school principals bore witness to the need for between $80,000 to $100,000 per student, per annum, to deliver holistic outcomes. The weaker schools will require the higher amounts. This is over and above the salaries for staff and miscellaneous grants. The Government provides $17,000 of this sum, with an extra two grand for the half of students who are on PATH. Where is the difference to come from? If you can’t answer that convincingly, please keep any further criticisms of the education system to yourself.

Education is expensive. Ignorance is more costly. Just check Jamaica’s national and household budgets for proof.

The newer higher schools, desperate for money, simply curtail learning opportunities and enrichment programmes, thus cramping countless lives for good. More confident schools disregard the recent circular from the ministry restricting contributions and spend inordinate time trying to persuade parents and benefactors to contribute what they can. What else can they do?

This confusion regarding funding remains the greatest obstacle to the systemic reform of education. Having set up a straw man that cruel principals were excluding non-paying pupils, failing to ever provide data supporting this assertion, the ministry outlaws parental contributions, and, with monumental and sustained folly, sets back hundreds of thousands of students, consigning them to under-resourced teaching and learning, papered over by pretty-dress, school-leaving exercises, with little prospect of remediation or matriculation.

After that, at best maybe a BPO job. Better than nothing, but hardship and disillusionment still. Hush! Andrew seh fi hol’ on. Yu no see gas gone down by 25 cents? What name ‘cent’, again? Tell yu boyfriend fi check a roadwork! As one diligent call centre worker appealed to me recently:”Please help me to pay my re-sit school fees. This money can’t go up to pay my rent and send my baby to school. Lunch is a luxury.”

SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN

So let’s do one thing for a start. As a 60th anniversary birthday gift to ourselves, could we have every under-trained early-childhood teacher and caregiver enrolled in a virtual upgrading programme provided by the teachers colleges? I reckon it would cost maybe 100 grand each, if we really practised economies of scale and use technology well.

Since we say we can’t afford to complete the transformation of basic schools to infant departments, as proposed by Mr Seaga and promised subsequently, at least raise up the subsidy for pre-primary staff to 20 grand a week.

The upgrading curriculum must emphasise social, civic and religious values almost exclusively. Follow the Japanese and Singapore models, and what we ourselves used to do under countless mango trees in churchyards across Jamaica.

MANNERS AND DISCIPLINE

Teach the children manners, order, and encourage playfulness and mindfulness; reinforce emotional stability; and for God’s sake, give them breakfast, especially if they come from far or from weak households.

Nigel, very respectfully, surely spending on this is as important an investment as paying down the debt. You are hereby challenged to come up with a $20-billion supplementary budget for education in September. What you offered two weeks ago is a well-intentioned sop. What’s the point of having smooth roads but ‘dunce-bat’ pickney? All this has to fall on your shoulders because, by default, you induce parents and businesses to spend on gambling, liquor and entertainment what they should be contributing to education.

Andrew, you have a “soft spot” for education. Display it in this crucial area now and the people will bless you. Right-size the JUTC into an effective school bus system and their scandalous deficit won’t be such a waste.

Give back HEART to the Ministry of Education, so that a comprehensive programme of in-high school vocational training can give hope and purpose to the present cohort. Restore the high-school equivalency project to attract parents, who should want to step up alongside their children.

OVERSIGHT – YOU READY?

Dr Adrian Stokes, chair of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee, has chided me for suggesting last week that his horizons for the implementation of Patterson’s recommendations are a measly 20 per cent. He reminded me that his expression of that figure was to encourage everyone that even limited success, derived from partnership, would yield good results. Of course, I, and all of us, will accept his clarification and offer his oversight committee full and critical support.

Getting ready!

But wait. Having mostly wasted the summer as far as learning and attitudinal recovery is concerned, what will be substantially different this September morning?

Two postscripts. Thanks to Mr Berry of Mayberry for supporting an upgrading workshop for primary-school mathematics teachers, starting this week. In the long run, this investment will be a more profitable investment for shareholders than had it been paid out as a cash dividend. What if other businesses followed suit?

The Churches and Trust schools will be hosting a forum on ‘Funding Quality Education’ on Tuesday, August 9, at St Michael’s College. The awakening continues.

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