Letter of the Day | Create more civilized, productive and patriotic citizens
Published:Monday | January 26, 2026 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
There has been a lot of quibbling and to and fro concerning education in Jamaica to a point where one becomes confused as to the education pathway.
At times the ministers or the party in power are blamed, other times the teachers, the school boards, parents, deejays, talk shows, politics, sin, and even acts of God.
We need to start at the beginning. Where do we as a country want to go? Then we need to decide on a pathway to enable the acquisition of skills and expertise needed, either through our own efforts or from foreign sources.
The first step is a national aim and objective for education, an approach I learned as a student at the then Moneague Teachers’ College, now the Moneague College in St Ann.
The aim is to educate and the objective is so that Jamaica will be able to achieve a particular goal.
For many years Jamaica has not had a clearly articulated aim and objective for education that is known to every citizen and visitor to our shores.
During the period of slavery, the rulers could say the aim and objective for education could have been “to create a highly subservient, slavish and productive workforce”.
What could be the aim and objective of education today or over the 50 years of Independence, considering our current high crime rate, declining productivity, high levels of corruption, unpatriotic and uncivilised behaviour patterns. Increased violent behaviour,also a general lack of consciousness and cooperation among us?
The aim and objective of education for Jamaica today, transcending all partisan political concerns, could simply be “to create a truly productive and patriotic Jamaican” as part of of a new 2050 vision.
MICHAEL SPENCE