‘Sacrificing our children’

From chronic absenteeism to teacher migration, and the tough challenges that rural children face, Opposition Senator Damion Crawford’s speech at Wednesday’s Educators Forum was not just a critique of the education sector but a call to action.

Speaking at the Shortwood Teachers’ College to an auditorium of teachers, education stakeholders, and People’s National Party (PNP) supporters, Senator Crawford was clear in his declaration for a redefining of national priorities.

“We have accepted that the vast majority of the money is to pay the teachers,” the opposition spokesperson on education said, referencing the fact that 82 per cent of the national education budget goes to salaries, leaving little for infrastructure, materials, or innovation.

“Very few of us would have accepted that, for the Ministry of National Security, 82 per cent [of the budget would go to] pay the police, and they get no weapons, they get no vehicles, they get nothing.”

Crawford emphasised that education outcomes in Jamaica reflect a systemic failure. He cited alarming statistics of only 18 per cent of secondary school students graduating with five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, including mathematics – a figure that, according to him, would have caused an uproar elsewhere.

“That would never have been accepted in the United States,” he asserted, stating that the expected outcome after 12 years of education at the primary and secondary levels should equate to a General Educational Development (GED) in US high schools.

SNOWBALL EFFECT

More troubling, he added, is the snowball effect of the social and economic cost of an undereducated population. When those undereducated students leave school, the opposition spokesperson said, the problem has only ended for the Ministry of Education. However, it is just starting for many other ministries such as labour and social security, national security, housing and health.

“At the end of 19 years, an uneducated individual is likely to be a problem to the society for 50 years,” Crawford explained.

“It won’t start and end with crime. It will end with the cost of medication, it will end with being on the path of poverty and then with not having adequate housing, and then with having children who are not being taken care of properly, often with households of malnourishment and malnutrition. It ends with there being a payment to those households.”

He identified absenteeism as a major contributor to the “achievement gap” between students in high-performing and under-resourced schools.

“We recently celebrated 22 per cent absenteeism … . Chronic absenteeism is defined as 10 per cent. And we celebrated 22 per cent!” he said in disbelief. “If you’re absent 20 per cent of the time, you’re likely to perform as if you never went to school in an exam.”

According to Senator Crawford, the attendance issues are exacerbated by structural inequalities such as rural isolation, inadequate transportation, and food insecurity.

He pointed out that, even though some schools seem close to where students live, the actual journey can be much longer because of things like one-way roads and poor infrastructure. On top of that, he explained, taxis are hard to come by in certain areas, since drivers often have to make the return trip empty, which just isn’t worth it for them.

“A child in Tydixon in St Catherine takes a cab to Moneague [St Ann], then from Moneague to Ocho Rios, and then from Ocho Rios to Linstead, to come to Charlemont High School,” he shared. “The average cost is $1,700 a day.”

‘ACHIEVEMENT GAP’

He said a PNP government would put in place a meal programme that would guarantee one meal per day for approximately 56 per cent of schoolchildren, to lessen absenteeism and target those affected by food insecurity, noting that the priority of any society must be to support those who are most dependent.

Crawford criticised the current government’s decision to remove the rural teaching incentive where teachers who chose to teach in rural or inner-city communities would have received a bonus. This, he said, has further disincentivised teachers from serving in underserved communities.

To address the ongoing teacher migration crisis, the education spokesperson proposed targeted support to retain educators, including greater access to home and vehicle ownership.

“After five years, a teacher should be qualified for a level of concession,” he proposed. “We hope to use that as an inducement to stay … .We need to fight for the efforts of our teachers.”

Throughout the address, Crawford drew a direct line between education reform and national progress.

“What is the problem?” he asked rhetorically. “It’s an achievement gap … . The chief method of finding the nucleus of the problem is to compare those who are doing well to those who are not doing well and see what the differences are.”

Lastly, the senator made it clear that Jamaica’s education crisis won’t be fixed with small changes or shifting things around on paper.

Pointing to the mere $2 billion allocated out of a $1.26 trillion national budget, he questioned how such little funding for education could ever be justified, declaring, “I cannot see where the sacrificing of our children is going to be defined as fiscal discipline. Fiscal discipline is that the money that is available is the money that should be spent.”

mickalia.kington@gleanerjm.com