Peter Espeut A RECURRING theme in my dozen years as a columnist for this newspaper has been the chronic illness of our education system, and at last I see the Prime Minister has openly agreed with me. In his annual message to mark the dawning of the New Year, Prime Minister Patterson an-nounced that he was going to name "a top-quality team to support the Minister of Education in the very vital task of a thorough review of our entire education system. We have no more time to lose". He finally admitted that "frankly we are not receiving the kind of outcomes we desire for the level of investment we are making in this area."
That is an understatement! Poor levels of literacy at primary schools, secondary schools and universities, especially among males; dismally poor examination results at the primary and secondary level, especially among males; high levels of school indiscipline, especially among males; low male enrolment at the tertiary level; dramatically poor performance at government schools compared with church schools; failed secondary socialisation in terms of the transmission of positive norms and values leading to early sexual activity and high levels of crime.
Although I am relieved that this government (which says it puts people first) has finally admitted that our education system is very seriously sick, I am disappointed that it has taken them so long to own up. We all live in the same country, and most of us went through the same sad education system. When I was a student at Campion College in the 1960s it did not take me long to realise - and to be scandalised - that the quality education I was receiving was not the norm across Jamaica. Some seem to have less sensitive consciences.
NEW APPROACH, NEW PATH
Since political independence, as a nation we have failed to demand a new approach to education which would chart a new path to sustainable development for our young people, unlike places like Barbados and Singapore. Protec-ting the supply of unskilled labour needed for sugar and bananas, we retained the elite high school system, building 'junior high schools' (JLP), then 'new secondary schools' (PNP), then rebaptising them as 'comprehensive schools' (JLP) before renaming them as 'high schools' (PNP). These name changes were totally meaningless! I know, because I was chairman of one of these new secondary schools at the time it was rebaptised: no staff upgrading, not one laboratory, no library improvements; no remedial teaching. Nothing!
And all this time, not one new genuine grammar school (traditional high school) was built! This is a loud statement that neither the JLP nor the PNP has ever been committed to lifting the Jamaican people from the cane fields and banana fields!
Some years ago, the government created the National Council on Education (NCE) to oversee improvements in our education system. The NCE has been a major disappointment! Imagine: with various denominations owning hundreds of public and private primary, preparatory, secondary and high schools across Jamaica, and with church schools showing the way to top quality education, the 'Church' was offered only one representative on the NCE, through the Jamaica Council of Churches; effectively denying the NCE and the nation the benefit of the best expertise in delivering quality education.
I have made my position abundantly clear over the years in this column: the fundamental difficulty in making the changes necessary to fix our broken education system is that our school system is run in the interest of teachers, not students. Too many education officers and Ministry officials are former JTA activists, which colours their vision of the solutions to our problems. The standard of our students is low because the standard of our teachers is low.
TEACHERS MUST DO BETTER
To fix our broken education system is going to require more effort from our teachers: they are going to have to change the way they have been doing things; they are going to have to motivate the children to learn, to break down the negative self-image too many Jamaican children seem to have, to give them self-confidence. We now need teachers who will step up the quality of their work, who will spend quality time thinking up new strategies to get their material across. I have heard teachers write off students as failures, as 'dunce', as 'don't have the head for education', and thereby put out less effort in their 'teachment'. I have heard teachers abuse students in front of others by calling them 'bad' and 'only good fi tu'n tief', and, therefore, create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I have never heard an analysis coming out of the Ministry or the JTA which defines the teacher as the solution to the problem (and therefore as the source of the problem). The problem is always 'not enough resources' or 'the system'.
The National Council of Education is a creature of the JTA. I know it has spent a lot of time pushing the idea of clustering school boards - having one board manage several schools instead of one school board per school. That will mean, of course, more sovereignty for principals, and less authority and supervision by the school board. Rather than devalue school boards (humbug to most principals and the JTA) school boards need to be strengthened! The very role and purpose - and even existence - of the NCE needs to be reviewed.
Yet I notice from the Prime Minister's statement that the review committee's findings are to be presented to the NCE for their consideration. That will be the end of that!
Nevertheless, I look forward to the work and the findings of this 'top-quality team'. No less than a complete revamping of Jamaica's education system is now required, and I hope the team will include the architects of the top performing church schools like St. Richard's Primary, St. Peter Claver Primary, Campion College and Immaculate Conception High School. The church is itself part of the problem, since it favours the education of girls over boys; yet I believe that more will be learnt by looking there than from consulting the same old tired hacks.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and executive director of an environmental NGO.
