For some who have been able to get a copy, the historic Task Force report on education appears to bring hope for a transformed, modernised system that could translate into economic prosperity for more of the country’s 2.6 million citizens.

Others, however, are worried that the proposed $520 billion needed to finance the reforms recommended could further plunge the country into debt and economic ruin.

“It’s a huge challenge, it’s like going to the moon, but I am absolutely confident we will get there,” said Robert Gregory, the executive director of the HEART Trust/National Training Agency.

But Beverley Lopez, the president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, was far less optimistic.

“We support the vision and objectives of the task force. but it is impossible for government to find that kind of funding,” she told the Sunday Observer on Friday.

“We have to be practical and realistic. and try to live within our means. We can’t talk about a pie in the sky situation, because the money is not there.” Lopez said she supports the view of lawyer and education activist Ralph Thompson who, in Thursday’s Daily Observer, suggested that gambling be legalised and the proceeds used to help fund the reforms. The country needs to find new sources of funding, she said.

“We believe that what we have seen in the report really brings to the fore an appropriate and relevant education system that is surely needed, and we understand that by September 2005 we will see significant changes. (But) we have to find new ways to fund it (and) spend what we have much more wisely,” Lopez cautioned.

The 82-page document, tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, sets out the Prime Minister P J Patterson-appointed Task Force’s action plan on how to achieve a world-class education system that will generate the human capital and produce the skills necessary for Jamaicans to compete globally.

It was produced by a 14-member team, headed by University of Technology president Rae Davis, and commissioned in February 2005 to undertake a comprehensive review of the education system. Through islandwide roundtable consultations with education stakeholders, members of the public, students and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party, the Task Force focussed on coming up with a National Shared Vision.

According to the report, there are significant areas of weakness in the island’s education system. Some of these have persisted despite government’s best intervention efforts, and have resulted in the general poor performance by the nation’s children from early childhood level to secondary school.

For example, only about one-third of the children entering grade one are ready for primary school, according to the report.

The problem gets worse further up the ladder.

“Some 30 per cent of primary school leavers are illiterate, and only about 20 per cent of secondary graduates had the requisite qualification for meaningful employment and/or entry to post-secondary programmes,” the report said.

This problem can be solved if greater attention is placed at the early childhood level, Opposition Leader Edward Seaga pointed out in Parliament last Tuesday.

He said the 70 per cent of non-performance originated as far back as the last 20 years, during which time all efforts to improve the education system have failed.

“The (free) textbooks for the curriculum have not improved the system, the ROSE (Reform of Secondary Education) programme has not improved the system, the programme to check what is happening at grade one and grade four has not, as yet, shown any improvement in the system.

And all these reforms that we have put in have shown no improvements in the system and we are going to do another round of reforms that will show no improvements unless we start at the bottom,” he warned.

Outgoing president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Wentworth Gabbidon agrees with Seaga that the pre-primer stage is crucial.

“One of the things we definitely have to look at is the results at grade one and use that readiness inventory to meet the needs of the children,” said Gabbidon, who is also principal of Pike All-Age in Clarendon. He was referring to the Grade One Readiness Inventory (GRI) test implemented five years ago as part of the National Assessment Programme.

Its purpose was to help the ministry and the school check five to six year-old students who were just entering primary school to see whether they have the basic competencies to handle the syllabus.

In 2003, some 47,100 students were tested and only 37 per cent showed full mastery of the test’s four components:

. visual motor

coordination;

. visual;

. audio; and

. number, letter

recognition.

Even though the 37 per cent is low, it still does not reflect the true statistics as each year a number of schools have repeatedly failed to return their test results to the ministry, Gabbidon said.

“The compliance rate is poor. We need to be able to use the results to inform further actions,” he added.

This will now happen with the new reforms. According to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson, starting in March 2005 a remediation programme in literacy skills will accompany the diagnostic tests. The recommendation is for the ministry to train 400 remediation specialist teachers and 5,000 teachers’ aides from the National Youth Service and other youth organisations to support primary school teachers where needed.

Ultimately, the aim is to raise the percentage of students mastering all four areas to 90 per cent by 2010.

Another area of system failure is manifested each year at the secondary level in the low performance at the Caribbean Examination Council exams, particularly in the compulsory subjects – English and Mathematics.

Only about 45 per cent of those who sit the English exam pass at grades one to three and for Mathematics it’s 36 per cent. The report wants to lift the achievement of candidates sitting both subjects to at least 60 per cent in the next 10 years.

But that is not necessary, said Branford Gayle, the president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools. The Mathematics exam was never intended for the entire cohort, he argued. “Everybody doesn’t need to pass Mathematics. General Math is intended for students who are going on to A Level Mathematics, or to be engineers or architects,” he said.

It is a view not mentioned among the recommendations. Gayle, who had not yet seen the document, did not want to comment on it.

Other performance targets include raising, by the year 2015:

– the percent of students achieving mastery on the Grade 4 Literacy test from 57.7 per cent to 85 per cent;

– the national mean score at GSAT for all the subjects from its current low of between 48 per cent and 67 per cent to 85 per cent;

– the percent of primary schools providing at least four co-curricular activities to 100 per cent.

Henry-Wilson said the targets are achievable. “It will take the collective resolve of all the stakeholders to make it work,” she said. “There’s no silver bullet.”