I have no doubt that Jamaica and its education system have the opportunity to regain its formidable glory and fame as in the recent past. In parts of the world such as England, Canada and the United States, employers and tertiary educational institutions have come to understand that the educated Jamaican is one to respect. We Jamaicans seem to outperform their citizenry despite their highly-pervaded educational technology and wealth. Jamaicans, irrespective of the challenges that attack our development, in most cases abroad, make excellent students and employees than their counterparts.

This fact brings me to address the apparent, current slide that obtains in education and the reasons thereof. The new and apparently energised JTA president, Mr Wentworth Gabbidon, has come up with some radical suggestions for implementation that he has proposed as the way education, the teachers and the Education Ministry ought to have as their central focus. He has stipulated that the focus be on teachers, that is, on their development. Consequently, his recommendation is to have the teachers’ colleges wave their magic wand and have teachers more knowledgeable and more professionally capable of exhibiting greater leadership roles. To have this happen, Mr Gabbidon thinks the teachers’ colleges should be offering four-year bachelor’s degrees and a mentoring programme to young teachers! Nonsense. Who would teach these teachers? The majority of teachers’ college lecturers are barely qualified for the position, a significant number of whom has only a first degree!

But let’s assume that the woes the Jamaican education system faces are due to a deficiency of sufficient teachers with leadership skills, from where will the pecuniary resources emanate to accomplish the dreams of the JTA president?

I am concerned that the vast majority of our leaders, whether politicians, leaders of trades union or the private sector, are merely prepared to demonstrate an “appearance of doing and ingenuity”.

If I am to go by reports in the media, it appears that the minister of education, Mrs Maxine Henry-Wilson’s demeanour is one which is suggesting that already she and the ministry have given up hope that there could be any significant improvement with affairs in the inadequate situation which obtains in our schools and with respect to our teachers’ needs, economically and academically. She was forthright in her stance that 95 per cent of her budget of $23 billion goes towards the payment of salaries and wages and that basically one must conclude that there is no way things will be changing for the better anytime soon. This, of course, as was reported in the media during the JTA Annual Conference.

I have the utmost respect for Mr Noel Monteith, the current state minister of education, on a personal and professional basis.

His performance as a JTA president was one of the best, if not the best, the JTA has ever had. But what is the state minister doing at this stage of his profession to aid teachers and better the plight of our woeful education system, at the time when he is best able to let his voice and pen be felt? Sad to say, not much.

My stipulations and proposals for fixing the woes of the education system are as follows:

(1) make it mandatory that companies that make a certain amount (to be determined) of profit each year pay one per cent of it towards improving the education system. For that, certain benefits could be worked out for these companies. However, care should be taken to ensure that these companies don’t benefit in excess of their contribution.

(2) arising from recommendation (1), an independent, non-partisan committee should be formed to study and implement it.

(3) any worker earning over 100 per cent of the minimum wage should be made to contribute.0.25 per cent of it to an education fund for the purpose of improving the educational experience for pupils and teachers.

(4) all Jamaicans who have chosen to be citizens of foreign countries and want to maintain their Jamaican citizenship also, and especially those earning significant incomes, should be encouraged to contribute towards the education fund. In the second stage of this plan, Jamaicans abroad who want to maintain dual citizenship must be made to pay a minimum monthly fee and this sum should go towards the education fund.

(5) there should be strict regulations set that would guarantee that the funds’ acquisition would only be used to fund education. No other ministry or project should have access to these funds.

(6) instead of making teachers’ colleges a four-year degree, granting institutions (which is impractical at this time), a five-year licensing programme should be implemented for teaching. In this programme, teachers will have to enrol in, and complete courses, on a continuous basis, courses in methodology and content, to maintain their licences.

As a Jamaican who resides abroad, I am worried that either most of our politicians and leaders have been redundant in terms of arriving at solutions to our challenges or are simply on a callous path of building for themselves and buddies, caring less of what will have happened to their nation when they shall have retired or have passed on!

Joshua Spencer writes from Toronto, Canada. E-mail:joshuaspencer@accglobal.net