Emancipate children’s minds through education

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As Jamaica celebrated Emancipation one uncomfortable truth remains ignored: more than 60 per cent of students entering Grade 7 cannot read at a functional level, nor can some of them they count their own lunch money – if they receive any. This is not emancipation. This is a crisis.

Education is a basic human right. It forms the foundation for personal development, social mobility, and national progress. When education is mishandled or dismissed, it deepens inequality and denies generations of Jamaicans from operating at their full potential.

Despite this, we find ourselves in a situation where high school principals and teachers are being asked to redesign their curriculum to meet learning goals that should have been achieved in primary school. Secondary education is meant to provide the foundation that guide students into career paths and build competencies over five years – not to patch up fundamental literacy and numeracy deficits.

If students reach Grade 10 and still cannot read fluently, that is not a reflection of the secondary system’s failure, but a glaring sign that interventions at the primary level were insufficient or altogether absent. Diagnostic assessments in literacy and numeracy must be carried out between Grades 4 and 5, with immediate and targeted follow-up at that time. Delaying this process only sets our children – and the nation – back further.

Worse still is the growing call to use patois as a tool to improve literacy. Let us be honest: the school textbooks are not written in patois. Many teachers themselves struggle to read poems written by Louise Bennett-Coverley. Those pushing this agenda don’t speak or write patois in professional settings. Jamaican English is not patois. Linking the two as a solution to our literacy problems is misguided and misleading.

Equally troubling is the suggestion that students reading at a Grade 4 level by Grade 9 should be redirected into skills-based training. This proposal ignores the reality that all skill-based training – whether in construction, hospitality, or cosmetology – requires the ability to read, follow instructions, calculate measurements, and communicate clearly. No skill can be learned in a literacy vacuum. Project-based learning demands both reading and mathematical understanding.

If we are serious about emancipation, then we must be serious about education. We need to hold our leaders accountable and urge them to reflect on the kind of systems and supports that allowed them to become literate, articulate individuals. We must also examine successful education models in countries like Finland and South Korea, where literacy is non-negotiable from the earliest stages.

Right now, too many individuals – even in tertiary institutions and the workforce – struggle with basic oral reading. This is unacceptable. We need real, urgent reform, not patchwork policies or feel-good speeches. The minds of our children are chained not by colonialism, but by illiteracy and systemic neglect.

DOROTHY LAWRENCE