Ronnie must battle his own dragons

Robert Wynte, Contributor

Our national education performance has been very poor and has been so for a very long time, despite many interventions such as the 2004 P.J. Patterson-commissioned Task Force Report on Education.

Only recently, Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites rallied the nation in his 'Call to Action' Sectoral Debate presentation. Like the patron saint of his alma mater St George's College, Thwaites has walked the walk by taking on the all-powerful Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) dragon to rescue the nation's education and to reverse its sagging socio-economic fortunes.

While many of us have supported the minister, we seem unaware of a much bigger 'dragon' than the JTA - the Ministry of Education (MOE) itself. Now we must understand that while the JTA is designed to defend the rights of members and earns it revenues from its members, the MOE is designed to defend the rights of students and earns its revenues from taxpayers.

We must, therefore, hold the MOE to a higher level of accountability than the JTA and must support the minister in his battle with the dragon within his own ministry as he attempts to slay poor education performance once and for all.

The emblem of St George's College is adorned with the famous cross as well as St George slaying a dragon. According to Wikipedia, many patronages of St George exist around the world, including England, Egypt, Bulgaria, Romania, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Israel, Portugal, and Russia. The myth surrounding the patron saint slaying the dragon purports that a dragon made its nest at the spring that provided water for the city of Silene. Consequently, citizens had to dislodge the dragon from its nest to collect water by offering sheep; and when they ran out of sheep, maidens were offered by drawing lots.

One day when the princess' lot was drawn, St George happened to be passing by. He faced the dragon, protected himself with the sign of the cross, slew the dragon, and rescued the princess.

St George's College old boy and Education Minister Ronald Thwaites must have recalled the saint of his alma mater as he has been battling the JTA dragon ever since his Sectoral presentation in Parliament earlier this year. Like the proverbial dragon, many believe that the JTA has made its nest at the mythical spring that provides education improvement for Jamaica.

Over the years, governments have tried to dislodge JTA's influence by sacrificing benefits well beyond the capacity of its purse to deliver. Finally, an education minister in the persona of Ronnie of St George's decided that enough was enough, faced the JTA, protected himself with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement, and battled the JTA dragon to rescue education in Jamaica.

Lines have been drawn, with the general population behind Ronnie and the teachers behind the JTA. Meanwhile, the prime minister, Minister Horace Dalley and their party's National Executive Council have remained on the fence.

BARKING UP WRONG TREE

The purpose of the JTA is very clear - promote and defend the rights and interests of teachers. The organisation does this very well, at times at the expense of education moving forward. Defending teachers' rights and interests was exactly what JTA past presidents Doran Dixon and Paul Adams did with aplomb following the minister's Sectoral presentation.

This explains, in part, why Adams is a two-time president and why Dixon won handsomely at the polls, despite the JTA hierarchy's feeble and failed attempt to deny him a chance to be a two-time president.

Incumbent Clayton Hall, in his first real test as president, was not as forthright as the past presidents; maybe because he had his eyes firmly set on the plum Glenmuir High principalship and maybe why he will never repeat as president.

The Ministry of Education (MOE), as opposed to the JTA, has as its purpose to enable quality education for all Jamaicans. Unlike the JTA, which has done very well to deliver on its purpose, the ministry has failed miserably over a long time to deliver on its purpose. This is manifested in the continued poor performance in the Grade Six Achievement Test scores, as well as the Caribbean Examinations Council scores.

This poor performance has continued despite the expenditure of some US$112 million in 'transformation' efforts, since 2005, which have made negligible impact on national education outcomes, rendering the recurrent budget only able to maintain the status quo.

For some strange reason, we have not held the ministry to the high level of accountability (blame) as we do the JTA. In this respect, I believe we are collectively barking up the wrong tree.

THAT IMF AGREEMENT

With Jamaica steeped in debt and having approached the IMF for a bailout, common sense tells us that any agreement should be transformational in nature.

Despite Minister Thwaites' assertion that we are spending one fifth of our expenditure on remedial efforts (estimated at $15 billion annually), the education component of the IMF deal does not address this waste. Instead, it deals with teacher welfare, teacher deployment and student to teacher ratios, which, at best, will save less than $1 billion annually while keeping the education system on an "escalator of failure", to use the minister's words.

This gives an idea of the absence of strategic thinking in the MOE hierarchy advising the minister. In trying to cut the fat from the MOE budget, there is a danger that the education component of the IMF agreement may result in cutting muscle that is needed to achieve the very education outcomes required to drive economic growth and development.

This is what spurred the outbursts by Adams and Dixon and has prompted trade unionist Danny Roberts to call for a renegotiation. I agree with Mr Roberts, and suggest that if the negotiators for the Government and the IMF fail to heed his words, they can be branded as aiders and abettors with the MOE in the maintenance of our poor education system.

DIXON'S STAND ON ACCOUNTABILITY

A recent Gleaner editorial reminded us that Doran Dixon's claim to fame in his first term was his reluctance to have teachers held accountable. To be fair to Mr Dixon, he argued that teachers are not the only ones affecting student performance and should, therefore, not be singled out for measurement and accountability.

Where I part company with Mr Dixon is that while I believe that the minister, permanent secretary, chief education officer, regional directors, education officers, school boards, principals and others must be measured and be held accountable, teachers ought not to view it as a condition for their own measurement and accountability.

Minister Thwaites has personally indicated to me that he wishes to be measured and to be held accountable; however, I suspect that most of the MOE's hierarchy is not so inclined.

Having been in the post for 18 months, Minister Thwaites finds himself at a crossroads. He may decide to copy education ministers of the past who allowed the education rot to continue while those in the ministry hierarchy remained in total denial. He may, however, take the very tough decisions to transform, really transform the very ministry that he leads.

Based on his staring down the JTA, I will bet on his doing likewise with the ministry. Any appreciable delay will see him being absorbed in the ministry's culture and rendered impotent to make any serious transformational impact.

An unknown author once said, "We must not only strike the iron while it is hot; but strike it till it is made hot." In this regard, civil society and, even more important, the prime minister and her Cabinet members must support the minister in his efforts.

Robert Wynter is managing director of Strategic Alignment Limited, which facilitates organisational transformation and leadership development. Comments are welcome at columns@gleanerjm.com and rob.wyn@hotmail.com.