Dr. Earl Hendricks, Contributor
SOON AFTER the CXC results were reported I read an interesting article in The Gleaner. In it, a number of people implied that the poor results were the direct result of teacher migration.
My initial reaction was three-fold. At first I found it amusing, then I was annoyed and then I got angry. I thought here we go again, placing blame everywhere but where it should be placed.
No one should be surprised that our students are beginning to perform poorly in some of our schools. Discipline in many of these schools has gone to the dogs.
For many teachers the school compound has become a battleground where they go each day fearful for their lives. Is it any wonder that given the chance, our best teachers are going to grab at the opportunity to leave such a situation? How does anyone expect our students and teachers to produce excellent results in those kinds of environment?
We have sat by for years now and watched while our nation and our schools have been allowed to disintegrate into the abyss of indiscipline, and the cause must be laid squarely at the feet of our so-called political leaders. They are the ones who have precipitated the free fall into chaos not only in our schools, but also in our nation as a whole.
POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
It was a political decision, for instance, that took "caning" out of the schools. This was done to appeal to the so-called "masses" because they thought it would be a popular decision.
Now the chickens are indeed coming home to roost. Students can now attack their teachers with impunity; they can violate school rules and feel that their actions will have no consequences because the powers that be for political expediency will back up their indisicipline.
I have always found it interesting that during election time I have never seen a political parade that included well-dressed, well-groomed young people. The ones participating are always those that look unkempt and undisciplined. Why is this?
It is because our politicians no longer know how to appeal to the best in us as a people and as a nation. Their appeal is always to the base elements in the society. They think that somehow connects them to the people.
The point of the matter is, the vast majority of our people are decent, hardworking people who long for leadership that tells the truth and appeals to what is best in us. That is sadly lacking in our country today.
I once asked a group of sixth formers at Munro College to name for me a national leader in Jamaica who is under 40 years old. They couldn't.
I then asked them which of our current political leaders they would describe as being statesmen. I don't even think they understood who a statesman was. I then told them the story of how Norman Washington Manley having been elected to office in 1959, went back to the Jamaican electorate three years later to determine if we should remain in the West Indies Federation.
Having been turned down by the electorate, Manley legally could have taken the country into Independence and thus secure for himself the honour of being Jamaica's first Prime Minister. I then asked the boys, "Which of our current set of political leaders do you think would have been magnanimous enough to do such a thing today." They could not give me an answer.
That is statesmanship. Where is that in our society today? I have yet to hear one political leader speak passionately to our people about personal responsibility and integrity. It is just not done. That would entail telling people things that are not necessarily popular.
There are no easy fixes to any of the problems in our society and certainly more so in our educational system. It is going to take time, it is going to take effort and it is going to take discipline.
Politicians must stop giving people the impression that there are easy fixes to complex problems and that they can be given something for nothing. That approach breeds laziness and indiscipline. Those we already have an abundance of in Jamaica. We need political leaders who are statesmen and stateswomen.
It was good to read recently that the Government and the Opposition have come to some consensus on actions to be taken to upgrade education in this country. I wonder though if it is not too little too late.
Dr. Ralph Thompson in his recent analysis of the CXC pointed out that the Jamaican educational system is being seriously undermined by the poor quality of the teachers being turned out by our teachers colleges.
Over the summer, I interviewed applicants for positions at Munro and was appalled at the poor quality of most of the applicants, many of whom were university graduates.
Many could not put together a coherent sentence in English. They had problems articulating a point of view and lacked some basic common sense knowledge of proper interview etiquette. I came away from those interviews extremely concerned about the quality of the instruction that some of those interviewed were going to be giving to some poor innocent child somewhere in the Jamaican school system. And we wonder why the vast majority of our high school students are not allowed to take or cannot pass English at CXC. It is because many of the people teaching the subject are themselves incapable of even speaking the language properly much less to teach it in order to prepare students to pass it at the CXC level.
TURNAROUND
If we want to see a turnaround in our school output, there are some fundamental things the Government must begin to work to ensure. Among them is to ensure that teachers are being properly trained to teach our children.
As Dr. Thompson pointed out, this is hardly the case right now as the faculty at some of our teachers' colleges could hardly be regarded as top of the line quality. Discipline must return to our schools.
If things remain the way they are right now, it won't matter how great the teachers are, few quality teachers are going to want to remain in the profession and certainly not to enter into a war zone each day to teach.
When I asked some of the really brilliant young men leaving Munro if they would consider teaching as a career, they, without exception, laughed at the thought. Their reasons are twofold the intolerable level of indiscipline in the society and, by extension our schools, and the inadequate salary being paid to teachers. And that brings me to my final point.
It is time the Government starts paying teachers a professional salary. The profession is never going to attract the brightest and the best if they are going to be required to give so much and receive so little in the form of compensation.
It is amazing to think that the people most responsible for the mess we are in, make more money than the teachers who are expected to get us out of this mess. Interesting!
Dr. Earl Hendricks is principal of Munro College in St. Elizabeth.
