'Don't mix politics with education'

Principal of Ardenne High School, Esther Tyson, has charged that the transformation of Jamaica's educational system has been retarded by political interference and a litany of missteps at several levels.

Tyson, who was part of the education transformation process which began in 2004, conceded that there has been significant progress, but cautioned that the system cannot be overhauled until there is a clear plan that is free of political interference.

"Education needs to be taken out of the realm of politics so that when one government changes to another, you don't feel you have to disband a team of persons to get something with another name and put some other persons there," said Tyson.

"It needs to be taken out of that context of political patronage," insisted Tyson, who was speaking on Wednesday at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston held at the Wyndham hotel in St Andrew.

The education transformation process started in February 2004 when then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson appointed a 14-member task force, chaired by Dr Rae Davis, to develop strategies to overhaul the existing system to world-class standards.

comprehensive plan

The task force developed a comprehensive plan to modernise the operations of the Ministry of Education through the creation of some key agencies including the National Education Inspectorate (NEI), the regional education authorities (REA), the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) and the Curriculum Assessment Agency.

However, while lauding the creation of the NEI to monitor standards in schools, Tyson said the agency lacks critical support because the REAs - which would analyse the NEI's report and develop corrective action - have not yet been established.

The veteran educator said so far, 30 schools have been inspected by the NEI, but she wanted to know what is going to happen to the findings.

"Where is the support? Who is now going to go into the schools to say these are the findings, this is what we need to work on. My concern in Jamaica is that a number of times there are many good ideas that start and then they stop and this is a waste of resources," she added.

"So although the NEI is an excellent arm of the whole education transformation, the support is not there to carry to fruition the work that they have begun," Tyson said.

The Ardenne High principal also embraced the creation of the JTC, saying it was important to have teachers registered as this could help to weed out "sexual perverts" from the profession.

"You have teachers in the system who are paedophiles. You have teachers in the system who are sexual perverts and they move from school to school and you send a report to the ministry (of education) and nothing is done," she lamented.