THE EDITOR, Sir:
I am far from happy with some of the efforts of the Ministry of Education and Youth, particularly with regard to the motivation of our less able pupils, and the production - and retention - of graduates who are suitably prepared to deal with the problems and products of our inadequate education system.
There is very little hope for positive change, however, in recent pronouncements by the Opposition Spokesperson on Education, Mr. Andrew Holness, on these issues.
Recently, I heard him, on a radio discussion programme, insisting that 11-year-olds must be assigned places in secondary schools on the basis of "merit." Can anyone seriously contend that the performance of the majority of our prep. and primary school leavers is more dependent on their individual abilities than on the unequal opportunities provided for them? Is Mr. Holness aware of the effect of the 'meritocracy,' which already exists, on the multitudes of children who have come to believe that they have no merit?
Mr. Holness has also promoted the pragmatic idea of tertiary- level training of people for export, to provide more remittances from the diaspora - presumably to prop up for a little longer whoever is left behind in mendicant Jamaica. Is it a surplus or a shortage of well-educated people that we have in Jamaica?
How, Mr. Holness, can we prevent some of these nurses and teachers and other bright people who are frustrated from fleeing to where the grass is greener? How, Mr. Holness?
I am, etc.,
PETER MAXWELL
P.O. Box 237
Kingston 7
