Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
From left, Hall, Bailey and Kelly

"Shut up and listen," is the advice of psychologist Dr. Grace Kelly to the party which forms the Government after the August 27 general election.

She says in selecting the critical issues to be addressed, the new Government should "interact with the people and ... understand their needs instead of trying to address a need that does not really exist."

Kelly, head of the Jamaica Association of Guidance Counsellors in Education, was among several persons who spoke at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum on what they believe to be the critical issues the next Government ought to address in the areas of health and education. She says the first and probably most important step is for politicians to "cut the crap".

The governing People's National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have been articulating their vision for the country, not just from the political platform, but also during the last Budget presentations in Parliament; they are yet to publish their manifestos. The rhetoric on the campaign trail, Kelly says, "is not making it. They (politicians) need to address real needs".

Other representatives at the forum were from the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ) and the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA).

All groups represented felt that the next Government, as a matter of urgency should address operational and administrative problems with their sector. The MAJ and the NAJ, for example, say it is high time that Government revisit the decentralisation process within the health system.

Review regional health bodies

Immediate past president of the MAJ, Dr. John Hall, says there appears to be a lot of waste in the health sector because of an unwarranted bureaucratic process.

"The financial cost of this bureaucratic machine is an intolerable burden on the taxpayers and the health services of this country," Hall says. The unwanted bureaucratic machine that he speaks of is the four regional health authorities and the Health Ministry that run the local health system.

Hall claims that more money is being spent on administrative costs rather than on clinical services. Armed with data published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, he notes that 70-80 per cent of the budget of regional health authorities goes to finance the salaries of officials, many of whom he says are "dropouts or rejects from the corporate world".

Dr. Alverston Bailey, president of the MAJ, says the association, which represents doctors, would like government to revisit the decentralisation of the health sector.

"A broad-based commission should be formed to evaluate its effectiveness, and if it is ineffective, then it should be rescinded," Bailey says.

The NAJ also joins the call for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the regional health authorities. Denise McFarlane, a former Nurse of the Year, notes that the decentralisation process within the health sector has not been entirely evaluated. Because of this, she says conflicts often arise between managers and quality assurers (nurses/doctors) and this affects the delivery of care.

Financing education transformation

Meanwhile, the JTA says Government must be decisive and clinical in the transformation of the educational system.

Hopeton Henry, its president, says, "We need to fix the education system once and for all," adding that focus must be placed on the funding of the education transformation programme, which he says must go right across the board, from the early childhood to tertiary levels.

Henry's predecessor, Ruel Reid, believes that while all the social problems cannot be corrected overnight, there must be a "sustainable, creditable plan as to how we are going to improve overtime". He says there has to be, going forward, a defined means of financing the transformation of education.

The transformation programme, which was tabled in Parliament in 2004, and began in 2005, will cost an estimated $52 billion per year. So far, only $5 billion out of National Housing Trust funds has been allocated to the programme, which should last 10 years.

That money, Henry says, is a drop in the bucket. "Unless the funding is identified, we are not going be be going anywhere," he says.