In Focus

I took a group of students to visit Cuba in the early 1990s and one day, an old man approached me hesitantly to ask for my help.

It is well-known that Christian advocacy groups like the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS) are proponents of discrimination and social exclusion, but it is time we discuss their efforts to undermine the role of the judiciary in a functional democracy.

"Security must be the first law of the [State]; otherwise, the other laws will not operate effectively." Though not original to him, these are wise words coming through Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington, MA.

So, Government plans to amend the Contractor General Act.Attorney General Patrick Atkinson recently warned a Cabinet submission to that effect was coming from the minister of works.

The Gleaner published on June 2, 2013 a response by Dr Alfred Sangster to the annual CXC study conducted by Johnson Survey Research (JSR), in partnership with The Gleaner. The column offered a myriad of critical comments and suggestions, many quite valid and deserving of a response.

Ronald Mason is entitled to his personal opinions, but he's not entitled to pick and choose facts to reinforce his ideological views on why Jamaica must leave CARICOM. The capitalist organisation of the global economy is inherently uneven. The European Union (EU) and NAFTA reflect in the most concrete ways the spatial unevenness that capitalism reproduces.

It's been years of trying to get the education system functioning at an acceptable level and our students achieving to their maximum potential. Additionally, I would like us to get to the point in our history when all stakeholders in the education industry put all hands on deck in the interest of efficiency and productivity.

Crime is out of control. The justice system is clogged with a backlog of 400,000-plus cases. The secondary road network is in decay. The country is heading towards a serious water crisis. And we have amassed a debt burden which is nearly 150 per cent of GDP.

Amid the present debate and controversy concerning the outcomes of our education system and the benefits accrued to teachers, is a concern that I have. This concern relates to the decreasing thrust to teach Standard Jamaican English (SJE) at our tertiary institutions and rather to focus on the use of Jamaican Creole (JC) in the classrooms.

The Gleaner published on April 30, 2013 'Education 20/20', a supplement containing its annual report on the ranking of Jamaican secondary schools in CSEC English and maths passes for 2012. The report, under the authorship of Tripp Johnson, provides a ranking in the above two subjects in three types of secondary schools.

For me, devaluation is a four-letter word and makes me as nervous as a drug mule passing through immigration and customs.

This is the fourth in a series of columns by Jamaicans for Justice in commemoration of Child Month.