THE INITIAL reports from the first day of the new school year suggest that, barring a few cases of inadequate furniture and classrooms needing repairs and painting, it has been a smooth one.
This relatively smooth start to the new school year continues a trend of the past two to three years in which complaints about the general state of readiness of schools have been declining when compared to previous years.
The reports about problem areas serve to highlight, however, another aspect of the continuing debate on financing education at all levels. The question is not only how much should, and can be reasonably allocated from the coffers of the state for education, but how should the education budget be allocated among the several levels of a generally low-performance system.
This debate over funding was highlighted just ahead of the start of the new school year at the University of the West Indies' academic conference 'Revisiting Tertiary and Higher Education Policy in Jamaica'. Much of the conference was devoted to financing, with some university spokespersons using the opportunity to make the usual pitch for the retention, and even expansion, of state funding to the tertiary level. The UWI administration will, of course, have to move beyond lobbying and be even more intentional in tightening the management of its resources to make up for where the Government falls short.
Across Jamaica, students seem to be able to find money to pay for courses offered by U.S.-based institutions. These courses are not inexpensive yet students seem to find creative ways of paying for them. This suggests that the Government, the UWI and to a lesser extent UTech, will have to find ways of breaking the psyche of dependency that expects the Jamaican state to subsidise most of their tertiary level education.
In any case, Minister of Education, Maxine Henry-Wilson, speaking at that conference reiterated the Government's embrace of the idea that "higher education should not have the highest priority claim on public resources for education in a context where access, equity and quality at the primary levels have not been realised."
In our continued focus on education, our publications have provided stark public exposure to the poor performance at the primary level and in the CXC examinations at the end of the secondary level. The harsh truth is that low performance at primary and secondary levels is denying most Jamaican children access to the tertiary level. And most of the 20 per cent or so who gain access require heavy doses of remediation.
The Minister herself must boldly lead the way in the rationalisation of education funding allocation for maximum social and economic (and not primarily political) advantage. The peculiar circumstances of the country with respect to debt, economic growth, social decay and so on, as well as the democratic political maxim of the greatest benefit to the greatest number must be taken into consideration. The biggest and most articulate voices must not be left to determine that education financing is skewed in their own sectoral interests. This is a debate that requires participation at every level, including parents.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
