Dawn Ritch, Contributor
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP) have reached a consensus in Parliament on what is to happen to education.
There is to be more money budgeted, a cut-back on money to the university, and more money spent on early childhood education.
Realising the budgetary constraints under which the Government must operate, Opposition Leader Edward Seaga also said that when the time comes he will help them find the money to fund the new education policy. There has been no response from the other side.
Despite this historic consensus on policy, therefore, nothing at all is going to change in education. Were the Government in the least bit serious-minded, they would have already replied to the Opposition, saying that the time is now, let's find the money, let's fix education.
Like everything else they do, the Patterson regime comes up with a good idea and announces it with great fanfare. But nothing comes of it. They believe that the announcement is itself the deed, and there's never any need to go further.
The facts are that the current education budget has been reduced, and salaries take up nine per cent of the total expenditure. Student fees are slated to rise appreciably at the University of the West Indies.
I hope, therefore, that the institution will revisit its curriculum, and cut out the foolishness of spending money on patois. This is as foolish as China recently sending an astronaut to orbit the earth, while collecting US$1.8 billion in foreign aid annually (mainly from Japan).
We cannot continue to pay hundreds of education officers working at the Ministry of Education, while teachers and students are given short-shrift inside Jamaican classrooms. Priorities have always to be identified, with or without budgetary constraints.
Now that the money crunch is here, the urgency of setting objectives is even greater. The provision of employment to education officers, who are ancillary to the process of learning, cannot be one of those objectives.
NO TINKERING WITH EDUCATION
Children have to be given a chance in life, and the only chance they have is education. I believe that a Government has an obligation to provide it. This means that Jamaica can no longer afford to tinker with education.
One of the other consensus planks is that the class size for early childhood must be no larger than 25. This seems to me a gross compromise.
All the experts agree that early childhood education is the most important part of anyone's education.
Not even I would want 25 little children all together singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
These classes should not exceed 18, and even that's pushing it. Anything else is a herd of little humans, and not a class of students.
Class sizes in some secondary schools are up to 65. That number seems better suited to a military academy.
In a secondary school it's a guarantee of ramshackle. It cheats students and parents, who would be better off taking their children out of school, and having them all privately tutored. Education would cost less to parents, and children would receive a better quality of teaching.
I just don't want to think about the traffic on the roads in the afternoon, as children get ferried about, buying their education on the private market.
Most of the children attending secondary schools where the class size is 65 are being left behind by the school system. As public policy this beggars the imagination.
Former Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer, once despaired of the Jamaican educational system. He said the only thing the children were learning in school was Pass the Cutchie on the Left-Hand Side.
Today, senior Government leaders set no example, nor act in anyway to suggest that education is of value.
The Most Honourable himself, dressing more and more like an African potentate, talks down to the people and tells the party-faithful that because of him "more man have more gal than ever."
Even 10 years ago, Prime Ministers were required to look, behave and sound statesmanlike at least on public occasions.
NOBODY SETS AN EXAMPLE
Mr. Patterson is not the only one reverting to the vernacular in the hope of winning cheap popularity. Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance, does so as well. He said of his election extravaganza of public spending, that he "run wid it still" for purely partisan reasons.
Perilous finance has been reduced to a palatable bromide. There have still been no consequences to Dr. Davies, despite his public confessions of personal fiduciary irresponsibility nearly a year ago. Nobody sets an example any longer. There is no role model to which people can aspire. These are the circumstances in which children are being raised.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that our educational system is in danger of becoming a national factory for hoodlums.
