Hilary Robertson -Hickling
DR. LENNOX Reid, an aspirant to political office in 'the West', is quoted as saying that he was hungry for upliftment of himself so he attended night classes and studied the appropriate subjects to prepare himself to become a doctor and politician.
I hope that many of the young people completing the school year in a matter of weeks have a similar motivation.
He has evidently prepared himself for at least three careers, as a master tradesman, a doctor and a farmer. He has understood that he has to be multiskilled and plan for multiple careers in the world today.
I know that 60 per cent of our school leavers will be leaving high school without one subject and ill-prepared for life.
The great challenge facing many of our young people is that they are making choices which will militate against their own progress.
There are those who have decided that since they are waiting to be sent for by their parents overseas they will not do any work. What they fail to realise is that the new schools which they will attend if indeed they go will be requiring their entire school transcripts.
This will cause them to repeat years of school and waste precious time.
It has never been easy for the majority of Jamaicans to get an education and it is still not easy. Stories of sacrifice are told by those who walked miles to school after catching water, feeding goats and all manner of things.
INFLUENCED BY CHOICES
There are those who had to defy their parents to go to school because their parents did not see the need for this effort. Yet others suffered at the hands of teachers who for one reason or another had taken a dislike to them, or doubted their ability.
There are those who had to drop out of school because of the death of a parent, because of pregnancy, or lack of resources.
Some Jamaicans know that 'if you want good you nose have to run'. While I am not minimising the problems in the educational system, I am detecting some dangerous trends in the minds of some of our students.
Some of our students have not realised that the choices they are making about whom they spend their time with at school and how much work they do will have a direct impact on their future.
The teacher, the parent, the don, the politician have already reached their destinations. It is the student who is on the journey. I fear that some of our young people have a false sense of entitlement and have failed to realise that any job, any scholarship that they are applying for is available to others in cyber space.
PAYING TO LEARN
Wealthy parents in America pay as much as US$350 per hour to have their children coached so that they can increase their SAT scores and gain entry to an Ivy League College.
There is a famous Institute of Technology in India where students prepare for the entrance examination by attending classes at 6.00 a.m. prior to attending school. Attendance at this institute guarantees success and its rejects are immediately enrolled by MIT in the USA.
Young people must enjoy themselves but they need to realise that their choices are the basis of their futures. Those who follow 'company' must realise where they will end up.
I realise that more help should be available, but how do we explain the poor failure rates after the Government has paid the examination fees?
For those who have done well congratulations are in order. They remind us that it can be done.
Hilary Robertson-Hickling is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies, UWI, Mona.
