WESTERN BUREAU:
AS THE public debate on the state of the nation's education system deepens, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) schools are not churning out more illiterates, when compared to previous years.
Wentworth Gabbidon, JTA president, noting that the literacy rate in Jamaica had improved over the years, charged that many critics of the education system were disregarding the positives.
"This education system is progressing at a rate that some of us do not wish to acknowledge because it spoils our love for highlighting the negative," said the JTA head.
He, however, admitted that there was room for improvement.
Pointing out that prior to Independence, the adult literacy rate was less than 50 per cent, Mr. Gabbidon pointed to data published by the United Nations which put Jamaica's literacy rate at 86 per cent. He said the island's youth literacy (those in the 15 to 24 age group) was at an all-time high of 93 per cent.
"These figures better the average of developing countries, where the average literacy rate stands at 72 per cent and the youth literacy at 83 per cent," Mr. Gabbidon said while delivering the keynote address at last Thursday's prize giving ceremony for Herbert Morrison Technical High School in Montego Bay, St. James.
