IT IS not unknown for politicians when speaking in a foreign jurisdiction where they wish to impress an audience, to make utterances that they might be hard-pressed to defend at home. If he has been quoted correctly, the statement by Mr. Patterson at a conference in Havana that poverty in Jamaica has been reduced by close to 50 per cent over the past 10 years seems to be a case in point.
Many Jamaicans, regardless of party affiliation, might consider Mr. Patterson's claim to be fanciful or perhaps a case of the wish being father to the thought. And, equally surprising is Mr. Patterson's singling out of education as being one of the main reasons for the claimed success. The disaggregated results of last year's CXC exams, published by the National Council on Education, hardly supports any such contention. Based on total student cohort in our secondary schools, only 15.8 per cent passed Mathematics at Grade III and only 27.8 per cent passed English at Grade III. What is more alarming, the pass performance of the total student cohort in non-traditional secondary schools to which 80 per cent of our children are consigned is only 4.1 per cent in Mathematics and 10.7 per cent in English. And this year's CXC results are not impressive either.
It could be argued, therefore, that far from our education system being a factor in reducing poverty it is contributing to unemployment because graduates lack the skills to perform in a global economy.
Another factor which Mr. Patterson says has contributed to lowering poverty is the economic empowerment of our people. This sounds good, but we are not sure what it means exactly. To empower assumes some substance over which one can exercise the conferred power. But since there has been little or no growth in Jamaica's Gross Domestic Product over the past 10 years it is difficult to see how any sort of empowerment can have helped to reduce poverty.
Since Mr. Patterson has seen fit to raise the matter of poverty at an international forum, we think he owes it to the Jamaica people to explain the basis on which he made the claim.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
