Ronald Thwaites | Spending priorities

Three out of every 10 students attending the primary school in deep downtown Kingston come to school so hungry that they are listless or fractious by 9 a.m. Some days they come very late. I am told that staying in bed makes hunger less painful. Other days they don’t attend at all.

Dr Gayle’s survey on the relationship between student welfare, learning and behavioural outcomes indicates over 50 per cent frequent absenteeism among boys in the lowest economic strata.

Many of these children are not on PATH – excluded by shame, stigma, confusion or corruption. In any event, what can $240 buy? At my school they used to sell porridge or fritter and tea for $150; and if you were really ‘stush’, a fried dumpling with small frank and beans for $200.

Outside of those on PATH, another third of the children could not afford even that fare. This is not a school with rich, generous alumni so the breakfast programme no longer operates.

NORMALISING FAILURE

The teachers at that school, once noted for its excellence, work miracles to perform effectively. Most days they spend half of class time trying to keep order. Some have given up. But they still draw pay. Others are pessimistic about their children’s future. “Remember Mr Thwaites, these children are not like yours who go to prep school and Campion. Their culture is different”, one grade supervisor said to me recently. Among the best, she is awaiting her papers to take up a post in British Columbia.

The bathroom at the nearby high school where the graduates from my primary school transition (whether they can read or not) is stink and dilapidated. The Ministry, at the highest level, promised to fix it more than two months ago but they still can’t get it done “all now”. We expect excellence to arise out of squalor, indignity and hunger.

SOLUTIONS IGNORED

Dr Herbert Gayle’s study on Character Formation in Jamaican Schools is growing a two-year-old beard. Food, therapy to cope with abuse and trauma, consistent and wholesome attachments are all prerequisites for a child’s development. Gayle’s analysis and prescriptions have been known for a long time and are unimpeachable. They have largely been ignored despite their compelling truth. In our self-imposed stupidity, we continue to wring our hands at violence and low productivity – ugly children of screwed-up acculturation.

We are to believe that not remedying these festering carbuncles has been the necessary price of achieving a high primary surplus and that relief is at hand despite the economy hurtling close to recession, the ongoing “money-can’t – done”election campaign and their 200 per cent salary spree.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT

Meanwhile, Delroy Chuck, once a human rights advocate in these pages, now clearly representative of a government at its wits end; apparently a convert to Bukeleism, promotes detention without charge, the death penalty and surprise. The tried and tested bullet: states of emergency, to make duppys – in May Pen Cemetery or the general plenipotentiary – of several of the male graduates (many of their fathers are already dead) of the schools I am describing to you. Having failed them, we kill them or they kill us.

Look, this is way beyond criticism of the political administration. It is literally a matter of life and death for the whole society. These are the weeks of the Budget call for the next financial year. Enhanced school feeding and upgrading teachers in the early childhood education sector are essential for any hope of transformation. They are more important than the construction of STEM academies.

EFFECTIVE SPENDING

The projected recurrent budget for education in the ’25-’26 financial year is flat at about $160 billion with a capital uptick to $4.5 billion. Where is the fiscal space to come from to deal with the school feeding and early childhood priorities unless there is a granular reassessment of all existing commitments and priorities?

A zero budgeting exercise would convince the tight holders of the purse to allocate significant additional money and demand targets and accountability from schools and students alike. My views on the financial partnership between parents and the State are well known. Those who can must contribute to the cost of first rate education so that resources are available for those who cannot pay and for whom the same quality must be provided.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

What is the mentality of the public officials who thought that a secret sweetheart deal could spin regarding the pollution of the Rio Cobre? Who is responsible for a bauxite company raping Jamaica’s top soil, most likely leave the land useless for centuries to come, and get away with not paying even the pittance of tax and levy?

Please note the report that Bunting’s questions remained unanswered for a year! So much for parliamentary respect and efficiency. Same time as the children in school can’t get food so they can learn.

Apart from vapid statements of support, who takes responsibility for correcting the miserable wages paid to hotel workers and the callous treatment many receive from managers?

Surely all these three cases would have had to be discussed at Cabinet. What did they conclude? Minister Matthew Samuda is to be commended for his principled candour regarding the Rio Cobre matter: Acknowledge a problem and take transparent steps to correct it. Absent that, our governors deserve the public’s disdain for their complicity with the modern advantage-takers who they consistently side with.

THE DEFENCE

We are fortunate to have a free, inquisitive press and civic-minded interest groups. If we are to remain free in an era of rising populism, nativism and autocracy, increasingly peddled by those who fear the loss of political, racial or financial power, those who make up this web of public commitment bear a sacred responsibility and a difficult future.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com