PM: Inequalities in education hurting country
Published:Friday | June 4, 2021 | 12:12 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has laid the blame for some of the ills that now characterise everyday life in the country on the poor quality of education being delivered in schools.
Giving the keynote address at a ceremony to officially rename the Denham Town Primary School after former prime minister and member of parliament for Kingston Western, Edward Seaga, Holness said yesterday that his administration was very concerned about access issues and the quality of education students were receiving.
“We see it in the dysfunctional behaviours that are normalised and endorsed by persons who should know better. We see it in the utter depravity and incivility, indeed barbarity, of some of the crimes committed. We see it in our culture, which used to be one of uplifting people, of challenging oppression, of embracing humanity. We now see creeping in a culture that is extolling violence, misogyny, objectification, abuse, invading all avenues, all facets, all areas of our lives, and the education system has a lot to do with it,” he insisted.
In fact, it was for this reason that he had reservations when the proposal for the name change came up.
“When the proposal was made to name the school in honour of Edward Phillip George Seaga – a man whose history and legacy is that of building institutions and holding them to the highest standards, a man of order and excellence – I had some scepticism in my mind because the institution that bears the name of the person must reflect the standards of the person,” Holness said.
A former education minister, Holness said that in Jamaica, there is sense of exceptionalism when people talk about education, with many people extolling the system, but the reality was not true for all “and it is something that we have to address because Jamaica is falling behind in the ability of its human resources to function, articulate, and navigate the new world that is fast emerging”.
The concern rests not only on issues of literacy and numeracy, he pointed out, saying that many students were not being given the opportunity to fully realise the socio-emotional intelligence needed in the current global climate.
“Much of the challenges that we face stems from the quality of education being delivered. It is a struggle for the teachers. When I speak to them, I feel their pain and frustration. They not only have to focus on what they are delivering in the curriculum to treat with issues of literacy and numeracy, but they also have to be correcting many of the problems that they (students) bring from the home into the classroom,” Holness said.
Seaga, the island’s fifth prime minister, died in May 2019 at age 89.