THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE HONOURABLE Maxine Henry-Wilson, the new Minister of Education and Culture, is reported to have expressed her intention to ensure that under her watch as Minister, there will be less secondary school drop-outs. I humbly submit that there is a higher priority than this for the Minister's immediate attention. It is the question of illiteracy amongst school-leavers.
For far too long we have allowed ourselves to be duped into believing that increased numbers of students attending school is an indication of educational advancement. It is not.
Everybody, including the Minister, will tell you that proper development of our human resources is the foundation upon which every other development rests. Yet nothing has remained more neglected in this country!
I have had a good measure of awareness of the problem for some time. But the condition has come home to me in a more personal and forceful way recently, through a young and close relative of mine who has just completed training as a teacher of technical education and is teaching in one of the new 'high schools.' I am anxious to know his progress in the classroom, so I quiz him ever so often. In his grade 10 class he says there are only about six of the nearly 30 students who can be said to be anywhere near the required levels of literacy and numeracy. And this scenario is multiplied manifold all across the country, based on what other teachers tell me.
Why does the Ministry persist with a policy that has children automatically promoted whether or not they can read and write? What good can anyone expect to result from pursuing such a policy? Is Minister Henry-Wilson going to change this policy and put in place instead, the necessary facilities to ensure that the majority, if not all the nation's children, get a good basic education, at the very least?
And as for the teachers themselves, is there nothing they can do collectively to turn things around? Right now they are haggling about salary increases and parity with private sector pay. Not the slightest hint of concern being expressed over the sorry state of education and what this reflects in terms of their own performance! I hope the powers that be will not yield to any pressure for private sector parity without commensurate performance criteria. Equity demands that there be a direct relationship between performance and reward.
I am, etc.,
CLARENCE GAYLE
St. Catherine
