A GLEANER Editors' Forum, which hosted representatives from a cross-section of independent schools in Jamaica on Wednesday, revealed some interesting facts and brought to light what seems to be an unfortunate ideological divide between the way education is handed in the public and private sectors.
There are 350 schools registered as members of the Jamaica Independent Schools Association with a clientele of about 100,000 pupils ranging from early childhood to tertiary education.
Based on the Ministry of Education's figure for the cost to educate a child, independent schools are relieving Government of a $3 billion education burden and it is disturbing to learn from the representatives of the independent schools who attended the forum that Ministry of Education officials seem only to pay lip-service in acknowledging this contribution.
The independent schools have no representative on the National Council of Education or on the new education task force set up by the Prime Minister. Principals of independent schools are routinely not invited to education conferences and their record of performance in terms of GSAT results and CXC passes and are not included in official statistics.
Dr. Herbert Thompson, president of Northern Caribbean University (NCU), pointed out at the forum that Government seems to consider anything private as a "dirty word". Such an attitude, if it does exist, is tragic because the reality is that independent schools are shining examples of excellence in the sea of mediocrity that makes up much of public sector education.
Independent schools get no support from Government and in this regard are different from grant-aided schools. Even so, independent schools are able to employ highly-qualified and motivated teachers who conduct classes on a shift system as late as 10 o'clock nightly to accommodate enrolees who work or students with special needs.
Independent schools use the Ministry of Education syllabus, for which they have high praise, especially the ROSE programme, but the basic curriculum structure is imaginatively enriched to cope with students, many of whom are trying to gain passes in subjects they previously failed in the formal system.
Growing violence in the public education sector seems mercifully absent in independent schools which make no compromise with discipline and insist on a code of conduct which parents must endorse. Some independent schools have Web sites on which homework assignments are posted daily for parents to check. NCU turns out the largest cohort of trained teachers annually at the baccalaureate degree level.
Over and over, independent schools have shown what results they can get disadvantaged kids to achieve. The public education sector needs to find out how they do it instead of trying to boycott them. It's time for the Government, through the Ministry of Education, to fully embrace the nation's registered independent schools. They are a critical part of the development process.
