Ronald Thwaites | Missing the plot

High on an early-morning spliff which he explained a “dog” (his language for a friend) had given him, this 19 year-old guy tried to shake me down for money. As if it were just bad luck, he explained that he had left Kingston Technical High with no subjects. I referred him to JAMAL then recalled that the office nearby had been closed for several years now.

This guy needs to be enrolled in a strict programme of mandatory literacy, moral and skills training. Where is that to be found? Otherwise, he is likely to end up in a Probox in Runaway Bay one night and thereafter dead by criminal or police bullet (does it really matter?)

THE BASICS

Lack of wholesome character formation and illiteracy in Jamaican Standard English are the foundational problems affecting Jamaica’s social order and political economy. Recently, I have been exposed to university exam papers. While there is a small majority of very able students, there are many who have matriculated who cannot write a coherent paragraph in English, and whose penmanship is indecipherable. The essays they typed during the term were very good. Most were obviously generated and scripted by the same artificial intelligence which the government says is the avenue to prosperity.

When the students had to think for themselves and write answers in the final exams, a different picture of their capabilities became evident. It was embarrassing. Since the institutions can’t afford to fail candidates, they will soon be escalated to professional status.

CERTIFIED WEAKNESS

All of them have passes at CSEC and maybe at CAPE, though. How can we compete in a challenging international environment if we have watered-down high-school testing so that national education systems and their governments don’t look bad? What’s wrong when a remedial language course is needed at postgraduate level?

FACING FACTS

Then the penny dropped last week when the admirable principal of Pembroke Hall High disclosed the tragic literacy levels of 7th grade students entering that institution. Rev Ellis’ virtue is in his truth-telling and willingness to act. A majority of his entering cohort cannot read or compute at a level where secondary studies can be understood. This is despite glowing official statistics showing progress at Grade 4 and at PEP.

Reactions to Pembroke Hall’s plight have predictably displayed our talent to ‘samfi’ ourselves. Officials said Ellis was destroying his school’s reputation. Others called him out as being “negative”. Another line is that he was being disrespectful of the efforts being made by parents and teachers.

SCOPING THE PROBLEM

There are at least 50 other high schools with the same situation as Pembroke Hall, Holy Trinity, Newell and St Mary’s College, to my certain knowledge. Many are worse off. Led by government and the teachers’ union, we are in denial as to the drastic state of our education system. It is showing up in the peril of my guy without subjects right up to the apex of our institutions, the universities and teachers’ colleges. Which JAMAL or HEART can cope with the 70 per cent of secondary graduates who can’t even scrape diluted matriculation standards?

WRONG-FOOTED

What is the point of salivating about AI institutes and STEAM Academies when the scourges of illiteracy and poor socialisation are not being addressed frontally? What could be the first purpose of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee if not these twin deficiencies? Left to continue as they are, every other grand announcement and money splurge will fail.

One particularly affected high school with which I am familiar applied four years ago for a literacy specialist to be included in their establishment. To date, that has not happened. None are available.

Summer holidays are approaching, expensive profit-making, bogus graduations are being rehearsed, any teacher who can is planning their annual sojourn up north and inadequate professional development programmes are nearby. For the majority who cannot afford holiday enrichment, students will regress during the weeks of idleness until an unreformed process and undeserved promotions begin again in September.

PROMISE VERSUS PERFORMANCE

As the law and regulations stand, neither chronic underperformance nor rank incompetence are bases for removal of an appointed teacher. Truancy is rampant because the State knows but will not adequately redress the truth that high-school places are irrationally assigned and many parents cannot afford what it takes to put out a child to class every day. Promised nutritional assistance is postponed till next academic year. Hunger must be hugged up till whenever. Extension of the school bus system is an excellent move.

A highly regarded high school in the country has a $5-million repair bill to meet this summer. Their maintenance grant from the ministry is $500,000 - one-tenth of the sum needed. Where is the rest to come from when parental contributions are discouraged by official policy and we are all gypped into believing that taxpayers are covering all required costs. Only the termites thrive on this self-deception.

This state of affairs is what some want a toothless Jamaica Teaching Council law to continue to allow. Neither ministerial over-reach nor a defensive teachers trade union ought to have virtual veto authority over the regulation of the education system, as each is seeking. The now-stalled bill needs balance and genuine shared responsibility. That is unlikely until there is broad and humble national discourse facing up to the truth of what is happening and not happening in the Pembroke Hall Highs and their feeder schools across Jamaica, and plotting policy, timeliness, budgets and accountability for change.

We are fooling ourselves big time. We are cultivating crime and under-productivity and then trying to kill them with the same violence which created them.

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