Jaevion Nelson | Let’s get serious about education

The government cannot, regardless of how much it spends on education, every year, provide our children with world-class education and training, if the education ministry continues to be so limp and prefers to tiptoe around our educators.

Multiple reports have been published, in recent times, which point to a crisis in education. The situation is so awful that a significant number of students leave primary school illiterate and innumerate, and most leave secondary school without certification. Additionally, with around 80 per cent of the education budget allocated to paying salaries, many schools remain under-resourced despite the tremendous need for infrastructural and other improvements to support children’s learning needs. It is evident, based on The Public Expenditure Review of the Education Sector in Jamaica and The Reform of Education in Jamaica reports, which were both published this year, that a great deal of work must be done to fix the country’s shambolic education system.

According to the Professor Orlando Patterson-led Jamaica Education Transformation Commission (JETC), “The Government of Jamaica is committing significant resources to education, but the returns are well below what is acceptable. This disconnect between spend and results is due in large part to the lack of accountability across the system, as well as issues in the administration of the education system.’ The recommendations it offered in this regard include finalising regulations related to the Jamaica Teaching Council and Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission and amending the Education Act and Education Regulations.

It’s quite shameful, actually, that we have been talking about these issues and the changes that ought to occur, for so long, and not much has been done as yet. Do we not realise and appreciate that these reforms are critical to ‘Transforming our education system to enable all Jamaicans to fulfil their potential and contribute to Jamaica’s development in the 21st Century’ (JETC Vision)? What is the reason for the snail’s pace at which change occurs in the education sector?

FULLEST POTENTIAL

Under goal two of Vision 2030, the National Development Plan which was launched in 2009, the government committed to ensuring ‘Jamaicans are empowered to achieve their fullest potential’ This is commendable but the government must recognise we cannot achieve this if cowardice, lethargy and inaction are characteristic of what has been happening in the education sector for several years. Our students are suffering and the nation’s development is being held back. Policy and decision-makers therefore cannot continue to tinker with what must be done, they need to be bold and firm in pursuing the reform agenda. As former education minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, said some weeks ago, we need an education ministry that is fit for purpose. It’s the only way to ensure that recommendations are implemented and monitored properly, that all stakeholders, from the classroom to the ministry, are held accountable and that resource allocation is targeted to students and schools where the need is greatest.

Like many Jamaicans, I am delighted that there seems to be a level of seriousness with regularising the Jamaica Teaching Council which, among other things, would ‘contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning in Jamaica by regulating the entry and standing of members of the teaching profession’. Our teachers need better pay and better working conditions. There needs to be greater accountability as well but everyone is skirting around this (seemingly to avoid upsetting the educators). It is, in my humble opinion, a critical part of the transformation that we desperately crave to improve teaching and learning in this country. Unsurprisingly, The Jamaica Teachers’ Association has taken issue with some of the proposals in the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill. It seems to be a custom for them to be deeply concerned or opposed to efforts to reform the education system, and decision-makers somehow acquiesce to their strident advocacy. While there may very well be a need to make changes to the proposed bill, one hopes this is not the case (this time).

ACCOUNTABILITY

Speaking about accountability, the education ministry has embarked on consultations for a dress and grooming policy (at long last?). It’s not quite clear what will be different from what was published in the guidance issued in 2018. Some educators have already made public remarks about this. Sadly, while there may very well be a need for such a policy, many of us are not very hopeful that very much will change. Educators will still have free reign to lock students out of school or take other ‘disciplinary’ actions (sometimes without consulting parents or guardians). One week into the start of the new school year and students are already being harassed for ‘breaking’ the ridiculous rules about dress and grooming. When will the education ministry put a stop to the tyranny that is disrupting actual teaching and learning? How difficult is it to actually hold school administrators and boards accountable around this uncannily contentious issue of uniforms and grooming?

We have to get serious about education. Our development hinges on having a more educated population with a labour force that has the requisite certification. A lot of changes need to happen to fix the education system, and those with the power should not pussyfoot around with their responsibilities, they should not skirt around the issues or retreat because of the power wielded by educators. The education ministry needs to be relentless in its resolve to fix the plethora of challenges that continue to impede progress, including holding itself accountable, proper allocation of resources, making the ministry fit for purpose and, importantly, not cowering to the tactics of educators who are hell-bent on things being done their way and their way only.

Jaevion Nelson is a human-rights, economic and social justice and inclusive-development advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and jaevion@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @jaevionn.