EDITORIAL- More than exhortation, Mr Holness

Andrew Holness, the education minister, is right to urge parents to begin to save for their children's university education, given the Government's plan to "rebalance" its education spend in favour of early-childhood education.

At present, only about four per cent of what the Jamaican Government spends on education is allocated to the early-childhood segment, while 18 per cent goes to the tertiary level.

This newspaper has actively advocated a review of the allocation of the education budget, but critically, for those who superintend the case, to ensure that taxpayers get value for money. In that context, we support Minister Holness' strategy of "a social-marketing campaign to encourage parents ... to start saving early for tertiary education".

However, exhortation, of itself, will not be sufficient. Our sustained national mobilisation for education involves rigorous policy debates on the financing of education, including how to make a suggestion such as Mr Holness' practical and affordable.

With a falling real education spend and the demand for parents/students to contribute to the economic cost of their tertiary education, we expect to hear, for instance, about proposed tax policies to promote savings - similar, maybe, to benefits that accrue to retirement funds.

Write-backs

Or, perhaps, students who graduate with specialised degrees can be offered write-backs on their tuition spend if they agree to work in the public sector or prescribed social services for specific periods

Mr Holness and others before him have spoken of things like education bonds to finance projects in the school system which, presumably, could also mean refinancing the Students' Loan Bureau.

The point is, the conversation about education and its financing has been far too passive. Circumstances demand a far more aggressive and robust discourse , in short, a national mobilisation around the issue.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.