By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterIN WHAT has been described by Opposition Leader Edward Seaga as an "historic agreement", both sides of the parliamentary divide came together on Tuesday night in support of an amended education resolution in the House of Representatives.
The original resolution which called on Government to immediately abandon cost-sharing in secondary schools was tabled by Mr. Seaga.
Accompanied by tremendous applause from both Government and Opposition parliamentarians, Mr. Seaga and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson lauded the collaborative move which resulted in a Government commitment to increase its budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Education from 10 to 15 per cent over the next five years. The increase will take place in increments of one per cent per annum, and will be accompanied by a nine-point plan for improving education.
"We are poised here to go beyond collaboration, we are poised here today to make an historic agreement in which both sides come to one common understanding as to where we are going in education for the good of the nation," Mr. Seaga said during the extended sitting of the House.
COMPULSORY
HOMEWORK/LITERACY HOUR
Among the points put forward were to renovate, rebuild and equip basic schools; provide a comprehensive textbook lending programme for primary schools (by increasing the required additional books annually to attain the target in the period); work with schools to provide a compulsory homework/literacy hour after classes; and upgrade teachers with a requirement for degrees to target a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 1:25 at the primary level.
Adding that it was one of the finest hours of Parliament, the Opposition Leader said the passing of the resolution was the fulfilment of a long-held dream.
"I have done many things in my life, but they have been mostly building institutions. The other day I realised in reviewing my past achievements that all the concrete blocks that I have managed to put up in the form of institutions... that I have not really done as much as I would like to do, not to build institutions, but to build people," he said.
The Prime Minister in his contribution to the debate conceded that the Government needed to spend more of the national budget on education than is currently being spent.
"In so far as the resolution is expressing the will that there should be an increment each year, that is something to which we fully support and have always been committed to and will adhere to," he added.
During the September 2 sitting of the House, Mr. Seaga tabled a resolution in which he called for Government to abandon cost-sharing and financing of education through the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH). The debate on the resolution began on October 7 with presentations from Mr. Seaga and Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education, Youth and Culture.
QUEST FOR THE 'BEST EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM'
But before the debate was suspended, as a result of technical glitches in the microphone system, an agreement had been forged to examine the possibility of a single resolution that could be supported by both sides in a quest for the "best educational system."
Also contributing during Tuesday's sitting were Opposition parliamentarians, Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett, Pearnel Charles and Audley Shaw. On the Government side were Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning and Horace Dalley, Minister of Labour and Social Security.
