THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT IS with great concern that I write this letter in response to the letter titled "Where is the incentive?" The writer questioned the value of the CXC and its role in preparing Jamaicans for 'the world'.
The Jamaican educational system, despite its shortcomings has over the years set Jamaicans above many in the world. The proof of this is beyond mention, all one has to do is to see the credentials of many of the top professionals in the United States. Our educational system, inclusive of the CXC prepares us for the world better, I dare to say, than the educational system of our North American counterparts. Our grade 3 students are doing work that their grade 5 equivalent students are doing; our third formers are doing work that their fifth form equivalents are doing. Our history courses teach us that our people did not start as slaves but as a proud people.
In the U.S. the blacks have to find their history outside of school. This has made us a people who grow up knowing that we are worth more than our colour or the reliance on affirmative action. The geography learnt in schools teaches us that the world is not just North America but that it is a global village. Many North Americans do not know the world beyond their borders, we do.
I agree that our educational system needs to provide us with a wider range of subject options. We do need to modernise our system and realise that education is more than Math, English, Biology and Accounts; that doing home economics or art is not a secondary level education but is up there with physics. We do need to make the opportunities for our young people and give them hope. We need to go forward, not just as a country but as a united region.
One cannot deny the shortcomings but the CXC is not a strategy to keep us in the region and to think that way is to think short-sightedly. It prepares us to be proud West Indians and to grow with a pride that no other educational system can give us. It equips us to perform wherever we go. See the West Indians in the world, they are surviving and many are thriving, many are among the greats in this world and they came out of our system. More important, see our own people in Jamaica breaking new grounds, succeeding.
I am, etc.,
VICTOR ELLIOTT
vs.elliott@sympatico.ca
Toronto, Ontario,Canada
Via Go-Jamaica
