Kristen Gyles | State of education in 2023 Jamaica

Why exactly do we send our kids to school, especially long after they have already learned the basics of reading, writing and counting? Is it so they can land a good job when the time comes or is it because we believe school will make smarter men and women out of them? Hopefully, it is at least one of those reasons and not just because we can’t carry them with us to our workplaces.

Some will argue that school isn’t the only means of achieving the latter, but more and more it seems school isn’t the only means of achieving the former, either. The question is one that has never really been answered, and this is partly why views on our education system are so wide ranging. An education system cannot be fit for purpose if, as a society, we are not sure what the purpose of it actually is.

Recently, a councillor belonging to the St Catherine Municipal Corporation was recorded delivering a keynote address at a primary school graduation in Old Harbour. The councillor appeared to be struggling to read the speech from his script. It also appeared he was not the author of the script because he seemed altogether unfamiliar with some of the words and seemed not to have read the speech beforehand.

Unfortunately, many persons used the opportunity to ridicule the councillor and criticised those who elected him. There was also little hesitation in pointing out that the recent increase in salaries for political representatives was clearly not being used to attract ‘greater talent’, as had been claimed by the government.

UNPACK

While shaming someone over an academic deficiency might not be very tasteful, there’s a lot to unpack in the sentiments that have been shared, most of which reasonably betray a disappointment in the supposed relationship (or lack thereof) between education and employment in Jamaica today.

People who have attained respectable levels of education are likely to gripe over a status quo in which they feel they are sometimes passed over for opportunities in favour of people who are not as qualified as they are. The disgruntlement is not unwarranted in these cases, especially since we may have been hearing that “education is the key to success” ever since the first school was built in Jamaica.

If education is the key to success, then the more education you have, the more successful you should be, right? This may have been a reasonable assumption many moons ago when education, for the average black person, was the ticket to securing a job and climbing the social status ladder. However, this over-reliance on formal education for economic survival in 2023 Jamaica has led many astray because education, as the so-called key to success, is no longer the only thing that opens the door to employment and is also no longer a guarantee of employment. The concept of networking (or ‘links’, as many Jamaicans call it) has suddenly become the supposedly smarter and more efficient approach to getting what you want in life. Further, an increasing supply of tertiary graduates means that where there are 80 suitably qualified applicants for a job, 79 will more than likely get bad news.

I feel it for the current crop of students. Many of them are confused, and they have every right to be. On one hand, they have people telling them that they should chase their dreams and passions (many of which take them out of the formal education system), and on the other hand, they are seeing struggling artistes and craftsmen set up crowdfunding pages in order to meet their expenses.

CAN’T BE DRUMMED UP

Just imagine a product of this very generation of confused students, sitting through their graduation listening to a keynote address being delivered by someone who seems to be reading at the third grade level. The signal it sends is that education can’t be all that it is drummed up to be.

And maybe it isn’t. The motivation, today, for pursuing an education should have more depth than simply a desire to make money, because frankly, education is not serving that purpose for many people. And clearly, many without an education have found ways and means of surviving.

Further, if we are honest, the formally required levels of education in certain spaces aren’t actually necessary for performing the relevant tasks. A councillor technically does not need to have a bachelor’s degree to represent their constituents well. What the recently announced salary increases for our representatives have done, however, is to set up an expectation that they will have a minimum level of formal education, which may not be the best measure of effectiveness. Who knows? Perhaps the councillor was elected because he represents his constituents rather sensibly and effectively in his mother tongue.

What is also interesting is the way many people conflate intelligence with eloquence. For many persons, you are educated when you can deliver a very verbose and articulate speech, with the usual ‘speaky-spokey’ flavour of the Queen’s English, and do so without making any mistakes. Education is multifaceted. The ability to deliver an inspiring speech is not what constitutes either education or intelligence. Just as there are many who speak perfect English, who don’t know what 0.5 is, expressed as a fraction, some people pass through the education system having grasped some academic skills, and not others. The way a person articulates is therefore hardly an indication of their level of intelligence and it certainly doesn’t speak to their ability to get things done.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com.