THE EDITOR, Sir:
A MAJOR challenge facing the Portia Simpson administration and the country as a whole is that of carrying out a major reform of the education sub-sector, to better allow it to meet the current and future needs of the nation.
Education has been seen by many as a process or set of processes carried out in schools and other institutions of learning, in preparing individuals for the job market or to increase their ability to contribute to the job market. Others view education as a set of activities carried out to relieve parents and or guardians of their child-rearing responsibilities during the day. The two mentioned popular views of education to a large measure have contributed to the sad state of funding and development of the education sub-sector of the economy.
LESSONS LEARNT
Experience has clearly shown that, where education is seen as being limited to training of a work force, graduates are produced who are unable to deal with the challenges of life, resulting in high levels of personal conflicts, domestic
murder, sexual crimes, and immorality in its broadest forms. Additionally, these graduates are faced with significant challenges in coping with the changing demands of the economy in general and the job market in particular. Here one is not speaking of a need to increase the amount of religious education students are exposed to, but rather to increase the number of hours students spend developing soft skills and healthy social outlook. Where education is seen as a child-holding exercise, graduates are produced not able to deal with the world of work or the challenges of life. Additionally, proponents of the school as a child-holding institution are of the view that education workers are not to be properly paid because they are doing nearly nothing.
The slowest period in the
national economy is during the summer holidays - less patties are sold, less buns eaten, less sweets consumed, less trips made by buses and taxis, less box drinks sold etc. The education system is a major driver of the national economy, creating and maintaining employment in all sectors. This reality calls for the Government and the country to re-examine their attitude to the construction and equipping of educational institutions. It also calls for a re-examination of the location of these institutions. The rapid growth being experienced in Papine and along the Gordon Town Road, is largely due to the presence of three major tertiary institutions in that area. The high frequency and numbers of public passenger vehicles plying the Spanish Town to Portmore Mall route is in the main due to the location of the Portmore Community College and the Portmore HEART Academy.
Experience has shown that the low presence of men in the classroom as teachers and/or lecturers has had and is having a negative impact on male contribution to the national economy and the level of crime in the society. Society cannot expect men to be teachers or lecturers, if the salary they receive makes them uncompetitive in respect to men working in other areas of the economy. Jamaican women prefer to speak to men with money and who are able to pay the bills. Here education or personal traits are unimportant. Women do not want 'broke pocket' men. The reality is that male teachers and lecturers form the largest body of victims of infidelity in Jamaica, as compared with other professional groups. Therefore, if the society needs men in the classroom, it must be prepared to pay the male teacher properly.
I am, etc.,
BASIL FLETCHER
Donovanfletcher@hotmail.com
Portmore Community College
Via Go-Jamaica
