Please reconsider, Dr Chang
Published:Thursday | December 19, 2019 | 12:18 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Anyone who believes in Dr Chang’s proposal to remove funding from social intervention programmes has no knowledge of the impact such programmes have had on society on a whole, and have never found themselves within an inner-city community so as to realise the necessity of such efforts.
From the 1970s to early 1990s, Anthony Spaulding, the then member of parliament for South St Andrew (which included Arnett Gardens, ‘Concrete Jungle’ to many), funded the School of Music in the community, a centre where boys and girls congregated every evening after school with the bandmaster, Sparrow Martin. That effort created, up to today, some of the most famous musicians and bandmasters all over the world.
The true reason why social intervention has little or no impact today is due to the fact that we don’t know how to manage such programmes here in Jamaica; the facilitators are not exposed to real-life scenarios elsewhere for them to properly disseminate such training; there are no suitable training centres; and, of course, too little funding, which we are thinking of cutting.
I do agree with Dr Chang, though, that new direction, new vision, is needed. I am advocating for more funds with dedicated, proven professionals to implement such programme.
Neville Grant