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Chinua Achebe, author of the popular novel 'Things Fall Apart', signs a copy of the book he hopes to translate to his mother tongue Ibo. Achebe is an African writer of world stature who uses the English language well.Don Robotham, Contributor
Emancipation and Independence celebrations may strike some as an inappropriate time to insist that mastering English is the key to improving our educational perfor-mance. But, as pointed out last week in the article on youth education, substantially raising the educational and skills level of our young people is critical to improving their economic circumstances. This cannot happen without mastering English.
Of course, improved education and training are not enough by themselves. They do not 'create' jobs. In fact, jobs are not 'created' at all. Jobs are a by-product of investment and arise in a very complex process which is strongly affected by profitability, finance, technology, productivity, costs, prices, exchange rates, marketing, demand and global competitive pressures.
Skills development is vital primarily to raise the productivity and incomes of persons already employed - better training will not 'create' jobs for the unemployed. We must, therefore, do everything to strengthen the link between education and the employed section of the labour force. The stark truth is that the "marketable skills" which the JLP proposes to offer inner-city youth in its manifesto can only be at the semi-skilled level at best, as long as the level of English remains where it is.
As I shall try to explain in a later column, we probably can have more skill certification, even with the present low English level. The present going wage of $11,000 per fortnight can be moved up somewhat with more competency certification of the semi-skilled. And we need to pursue this option aggressively as well. But there is no doubt that improved English literacy is the precondition for raising workers to the skilled level and to significantly increasing productivity and incomes.
RADIATOR TEST
Although most Jamaicans seem to understand formal English well in its oral form and to some extent are able to speak it, on closer examination this may turn out to be illusory. The levels of actual comprehension of oral English may actually be quite low. But this is obscured by a skilful reading of body language and voice tone in a situation of face-to-face interaction. People have had to learn over time how to use these clues to hide their ignorance and to get by in the absence of a real grasp of English.
To better understand this complex problem, next time you go to the mechanic, conduct what I call 'the radiator test'. Carry pen and paper and, after your car is serviced, ask a young mechanic if he would write out a sentence for you.
Present the mechanic with a short sentence such as 'The radiator needs to be fixed.' Ask him to write this out as neatly as possible. Some may do it well. But here are some of the most likely errors. The sentence is begun with a common 't'. The full stop is omitted. The 's' is left off 'needs' and the 'ed' is left off 'fixed'. The 'be' may be left out entirely - and why not? - it is indeed somewhat redundant. There are major problems in spelling 'radiator' correctly.
EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS
The failure of the radiator test goes to the heart of our educational problems. The most intriguing part of this exercise is that this same person who stumbles badly on the written test will understand the same sentence spoken orally. There are several points to note here however. First, the radiator sentence is a simple one - no subordinate clause, complex tenses or advanced vocabulary.
I suspect that if you were to make the sentence a bit more complex and to increase the vocabulary level, then significant problems of comprehension would reveal themselves also at the oral level. If this is the case, then it suggests that the level of comprehension of all forms of Standard English in Jamaica - whether written or oral - is low.
Second, it is essential to master any language in its written form. This is because so much of our use of the language is not in face-to-face interactions where we can rely on body language and tone to decipher meaning. Whether working with manuals, blueprints, circuit diagrams, the details of your employment contract, filling out a leave application, understanding your pay stub or using a computer, we are on our own - all these and many more depend on mastering written forms of the relevant language.
Moving skills from the semi- to the fully skilled level in today's world, not to mention further technical and professional education, is inconceivable without a mastery of the written forms of the relevant language, whatever that language may be. In our case, this language is English. All the talk about business process outsourcing and 'job creation' will come to naught unless this issue is tackled frontally. So it is of the utmost urgency that we make mastering written English the real priority in our educational policy.
ENGLISH AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
The first problem which arises when this is proposed is the question of national identity. The fear is that a major focus on promoting Standard English will foster white and light-skinned values and further marginalise blackness and our African heritage. But this need not be the case if our approach is carefully thought out and implemented.
The wholesale promotion of written Standard English should actually deepen our knowledge and appreciation of our African heritage - not only Africa,but mainly Africa.
Everything depends on who leads this process, how it is designed and implemented and what materials are used. We have excellent writers who are highly conscious of our African heritage whose work would be very helpful in teaching written English. We also have many African writers of world stature whose work we need to familiarise all Jamaicans with anyhow.
The works of Marcus Garvey, George Lamming, Rex Nettleford, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and the new young prize-winning Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, come to mind. We could also seize the opportunity widely to expose the work of wonderful new young Jamaican novelists such as Garfield Ellis and Marlon James and the works of fine writers such as Melville Cooke, Tanya Batson-Savage and many others. This would not mean that Shakespeare and Milton are neglected, so don't press the panic button yet!
Because of the general indiscip-line in Jamaican society and the upsurge of violence and disorder in our schools, many are inclined to put character education at the top of the educational agenda.
The stress on character and early childhood education fit together as part of the same strategic vision of our educational priorities. Both early childhood and character education are wonderful, if what you want is to influence educational outcomes in the dim and distant future. The early childhood and character education strategy feeds too much into the mentality which would write off the present generation of Jamaican youth. This will not work.
In any event, increased discipline cannot be achieved by class periods in values and attitudes, even if we put in five periods per week. Nor can it be achieved by expanding the youth club movement and strengthening the National Youth Service, all of which is laudable and which the Jamaica Labour Party proposes to do.
THREATS TO INDISCIPLINE
The main threats to indiscipline come from outside the school and the youth club - from the vulgarity of the wider society.It is the unrelenting coarsening of Jamaican culture and interpersonal behaviour which bombards us at every level that is the problem. Strengthening schools or youth clubs as citadels of discipline against this siege of coarseness is critical. But this is a defensive strategy which does not get to the root of the problem. What we really need is to go on the offensive outside the school - in public life - where the coarseness originates.
Moreover, character education is a practical as well as a moral process. It is easy to devise courses in values and attitudes. But our real challenge is to demonstrate to our youth that these values and the educational process really lead somewhere in practice. 'Younger youth' in school need to see the real-life conditions of working youth improve in dollar terms. This reality will have a more powerful demonstration effect than a thousand classes in values and attitudes and a hundred youth clubs.
Our youth need to realise that discipline is not just a 'value' being preached. It is a matter of interests, especially in the labour market. At present many hear the values 'preachment' but are not convinced that their own vital practical interests are at stake. Do these values really make a difference in one's economic and social circumstances in today's Jamaica? Demonstrating a practical connection between values, edu-cation and real benefits in the labour market is the challenge. This is what will help give back purpose to Jamaican education at every level. Mastering English in all its forms is one key to such a process.
