EDITORIAL - Value education

Even in the face of fiscal stress, education has to remain a major priority of Government. And a government that gives short shrift to education is undermining a crucial building block of the country's future prosperity.

We make this observation against the background of the meagre funding allocated to the education ministry for its school-building programme in the current Budget announced by Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips.

A study conducted in 2012 determined that the country needed 151 new primary and secondary schools to tackle the problem of overcrowding and to end the shift system. That simply means that demand has been building up over many years as successive governments have ignored the need.

Yvonne Clarke, interim manager of the National Education Trust (NET), has described as a "drop in the bucket" the $727 million allocated for additional classrooms and the $119.3 million for improving sanitary facilities in the schools.

Established in 2010 to help facilitate long-term capital investment and infrastructure development in the education sector, NET has been slow off the ground in engaging relevant partners, the manager admitted.

Already, various foundations, non-profits and alumni associations have been providing enormous support to the nation's schools by boosting their resources through donations of cash and kind. It will be interesting to see what kind of collaboration will emerge with these organisations.

Rather than cut, this Government seriously needs to embark on a massive school-building programme as a matter of priority. We ignore the problem of insufficient school places at our peril. Because of our education sector dysfunction, hundreds of young boys have been drafted into gangs as a quick way of making money in the absence of work or other opportunities.

As everyone knows, the Government is in a revenue drought, and apparently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) does not consider education a priority. In fact, a well-known IMF prescription is the cutting of social programmes in education and health as it acts as global financial police for the roughly 60 countries that it has provided with emergency loans. However, we urge the Government to fight to protect its educational programmes. It owes it to the children of Jamaica.

It is understandable that a government will never have the capital to do all the things it considers necessary. However, there can be no compromise on education. This was, perhaps, the thinking behind the establishment of an education tax. The ministries of Finance and Education need to explain how this tax is being used to meet the nation's educational needs.

We see an urgent need for the Government to revise its revenue instruments in allocating funds for education to avoid such shortfall in future education budgets. These cuts only serve to undermine education reform and deter teachers from delivering solid education. And the worst thing is that there are long-term negative effects in store for a nation that fails to educate its young.

The buzz about the establishment of a logistics hub is premised on the fact that such an entity will require an educated and skilled workforce. Education cuts can only weaken efforts to produce such a workforce by depriving many youngsters of primary or secondary education.

Education deserves special treatment, and we submit that it is time that this country's Cabinet becomes pro-education.

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