THE REPORT of the special Task Force on education chaired by Dr. Rae Davis and its findings tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, are a vindication of the voices which have been calling for reform, a range of opinions which this newspaper has championed and to which we have given special editorial support during 2004.The clarity and thoroughness of the report apart, Dr. Davis and his team have displayed remarkable courage in calling a spade a spade in identifying a host of failures and ineptitude which have plagued the education system since Independence. It would have been easy to avoid the main issues by indulging in platitudes and politically correct 'spin'. In fact, the report adopts a no-nonsense tone and clearly indicates that the time for excuses is over.
Dr. Davis is also chairman of the National Council on Education (NCE) and, interestingly, most, if not all of the recommendations for educational reform put forward by the NCE three years ago have been adopted by the Task Force. These have been expanded and given statistical reinforcement but, except for early childhood education, the main thrust continues the thinking of the NCE on the need to license teachers, base their pay on performance, upgrade teaching standards and infra-structure and decentralize the role of the Ministry of Education so that school principals can take responsibility for the overall performance of their schools.
Except for a few passing references, the Task Force gives little specific attention to early childhood education which is unfortunate because this stage of the education, chain is perhaps the most important. This omission may have been purposeful because government has appointed an Early Childhood Commission, with its own terms of reference, and it was probably thought wise to avoid any overlapping or policy conflicts.
The Task Force has not hesitated to put a price tag on its recommendations, some $50 billion for upgrading physical infra-structure and $22 billion of recurrent expenditures. No time frame for sourcing the funding has been announced and, as we understand it, the Task Force is still working on this aspect which will be crucial to converting recommendations into reality. But a good start has been made and we congratulate Dr. Davis and his team for their efforts.
The report is a fitting climax to a year in which a national debate on the state of education in Jamaica often took centre stage.
