VIDEO: Private sector deaf to Mico sponsorship plea

Only Jamaica National on board for critical Math & Science teacher confab

BY DENISE DENNIS Observer staff reporter dennisd@jamaicaobserver.com

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

CORPORATE Jamaica appears to have shunned sponsorship of a groundbreaking Science and Mathematics teacher education conference to be hosted by The Mico University College on March 19 and 20.

Adjunct Professor at the university, Arnaldo Ventura, lamented at the Observer Monday Exchange yesterday that with the exception of Jamaica National Building Society, no other private sector company has come on board to help sponsor the event.

The conference, themed 'Confronting the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in the Caribbean and Latin America', is budgeted to cost $3 million to mount, but only between 35 and 40 per cent of that cost has so far been realised.

"We have approached many of the top corporate bodies in Jamaica with very little response. They don't see this conference as being very important at all," Ventura said.

He noted that it was remarkable that the foreign entities that were approached to be a part of the conference came on board without hesitation, recognising its importance.

Practitioners and researchers from Britain, the United States, India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Finland and other countries are slated to participate in the conference which will see the sharing and discussion of best practices in the two subjects which drive global development.

"They see this conference as pivotal to what happens across the world, and in Jamaica, we pay scant attention to it," he said. "And because of that, we are now struggling to get the conference to work as it ought to."

Ventura said the lack of support for the conference by the corporate world is reflective of the general lack of investment in science and technology.

"It must start now, it can't start tomorrow, and the conference is just one example of the fact that we put very little investment in what will determine our future. That might seem grandiose, but it's a fact," said Professor Ventura.

Director of Alumni Affairs at The Mico, Sharon Wolfe, said the university is still engaging potential corporate partners in the hope that they will come on board, but also shared her disappointment.

"Some of our corporate friends, they talk excellent talk, but when it comes to putting something down, their response is not what we would like," Wolfe said. "The talk is there, but we have found that the ability to walk that talk is very weak."

However, she said Mico is confident that the conference, which should accommodate between 300 and 500 participants, will nonetheless go on.

"We have decided, and we know for a fact that what it is that we are aiming to do is critical to our development," she declared.

This conference is part of the teacher-training institution's efforts to focus attention on severe shortcomings in the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in Jamaica.

Dr Tamika Benjamin, director of the Caribbean Centre of Excellence in Mathematics Teaching (CCEMat) explained that students continue to underperform in both subjects, which form the underpinnings of all growth and development of the country.

"While we are saying Math and Science, we are saying they are linked together; the teaching of them is linked. We tend to see them separately and we have not really been able to, in our system, integrate them more creatively and effectively in terms of delivering a curriculum," she said.

Benjamin said the hope is that the conference will bring more attention to the issues that are impacting the low levels of performance of students, and at the same time begin to look at solutions to the problems.

Early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education will be addressed at the two-day conference which will cater to a wide range of educators — teacher-educators, principals of teacher education institutions and primary, secondary and early childhood teachers.

A key component of the conference will be what the university is calling the Jamaica Declaration, which will propose solutions for handling the challenges to improve performance in Mathematics and Science and inform teacher preparation and curriculum development in these crtitical subjects.

[ video link for mobile viewing ]

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COMMENTS (6)

Cookie Bulla
2/21/2012

The private sector is only interested in short term investments - "what have you done for me lately??" - Something that can reap benefits today..........Good luck with that!!

wanda woeman
2/21/2012

If the private sector in JA is the engine of growth then they badly need an overall. They only want to get more and more and hardly ever think to put back. They complained about the high interest rate but what have they done since it was dramatically reduced? In any case they could go public but they prefer to retain their business in family hands
Meanwhile they mostly live living in palatial mansions and drive high-end utility vehicles, while they gouge the society for all its worth. Thank God there are some with a conscience.

Nejeeper KNG
2/21/2012

This is not a good look: The private sector should consider the long term benefits. The world is driven by Science and Mathematics; these disciplines drive innovations. It is crucial that the PS play a role in the transformation of JA it is called "giving back." I am fully convinced that many of our current problems are self inflected wounds. When foreign entities are more willing than our local companies to contribute to a cause it is an International embarrassment. We can and should do better.

Donavon Murray
2/21/2012

In the 1940s Jamaica was on the forefront of Science and Technology with T.P. Lecky and A.J. Thomas contributing an a major way to the development of Agriculture and Fisheries.
New Zeland one of the world's leading producer of dairy products buys animal stock from Jamaica because of the breed that was developed my T. P. Lecky. We have ceased being inovators. .

Donavon Murray
2/21/2012

The breweries; the pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies; the bauxite companies; the telecommunication companies; the light and power company and a host of others all need people with Science, Technology and Mathematics skills. Do they want to invest in Jamaica and Jamaicans?
It seems that they would rather “import” skilled workers from abroad instead of helping to develop our own indigenous workforce.

RED ANTS
2/21/2012

The private sector in Jamaica is nothing but talk.They find it easier to pump money on the political parties to spend on flags, horns and support their Dons, they know the returns they will receive when elections are over.It was the same way they were shunning track&field,I can remember when we were struggling to find sponsor for boys&girls champ, only after 2008 Olympic they started to show their faces.Maybe their children are home school so they don't see it important to give their support.

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VIDEO: Private sector deaf to Mico sponsorship plea