The Editor, Sir:

Mr Seaga's article in The Gleaner of 1st July needs to be read carefully and pursued by all those involved with the development and implementation of our education system. In the 1970s, I wrote to the then Minister of Education, Hon. Eric Bell, along similar lines, essentially saying that the education system needs to include training at all leaves, by specialist teachers, of such things as the construction, what are people's rights and obligations and rights of others; what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, what we consider good and what bad; self-respect and in turn respect and consideration for others; "not doing unto others what you would not want them to do to you", etc. Many seem to believe that for those who have achieved by dishonest means, so given the opportunity, it is now their turn to achieve by identical means. We need to educate our people out of that mentality.

The situation was quite clearly deteriorated then and it is much worse now, as set out in Mr Seaga's article. I think it is important to recognise a few things:

1. When I was a boy growing up in Western St Thomas, practically every home had a father figure who provided the discipline, work ethic, carried on the traditions of music, storytelling (often with a strong moral base). With migration abroad from 1950s until today, in large measure, there are no longer such father figures with a moral base themselves to guide and train the children.

2. When we went to school, we were taught, supervised and disciplined by teachers, who had themselves come out of those backgrounds and who reinforced what was being taught at home. Today, there are relatively few teachers in the system who came out of such disciplined backgrounds and hold to the importance of these old (and good!) values.

3. Essentially therefore, we need to compensate for this major shift which has taken place on a large scale in homes all over Jamaica, by instituting in our schools training programmes to provide the required training, as set out in Mr. Seaga's article, and with appropriate exams to ensure that it is all taken seriously.

4. This programme needs to be put in place as soon as possible for two main reasons:

Why implement these programmes?

(a) The numbers of teachers in the system who would understand what are issues and what should be the objectives and solutions are rapidly diminishing.

(b) We need these teachers to be used to both: (i) train the teachers in the training colleges who will have to continue the process; (ii) be assigned to the schools to try to reverse the trend by teaching the children in the system so as not to lose more time waiting for the teachers graduating from the training colleges.

Mr. Seaga's talk at the J.C. Old Boys dinner on June 27 was based on this article. Hugh Small, who was one of the recipients of the Carlton Alexander Award, fully endorsed and supported Mr. Seaga's position on this matter.

My point is that if we wish for others in our country what we have achieved, we must take these things seriously and do something about them regardless of politics; and do so now. And while we are at it, we need to do something about stopping the ganja smoking which is crippling our people. Now, people openly smoke ganja while driving and even in police presence.

I am, etc.,

John Allgrove

8 Armon Jones Crescent

Kingston 6