EARL Jarrett, the general manager for Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), has encouraged the private sector to create more partnerships with the education sector, in order to expedite the much-needed Education Transformation initiative on the island.

Jarrett, who was addressing the Mico University College Old Student’s Association’s (MOSA’s) recent Gold Medal Awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Kingston, said over the years there has been a steady decline in support for schools that were initially established through private sector involvement.

“While we acknowledge the role of the government in the education process, I believe that we need to get back to basics, to the foundation on which our education sector was built – private sector collaboration,” Jarrett told his audience of mostly teachers, principals and vice-principals.

“Education has now become a state responsibility, and the challenges in the sector strongly indicate that the state is not coping. The private sector needs to become involved once again to help bring about the transformation that the sector clearly needs,” he added.

According to Jarrett, private sector responsibility should involve financial support to help improve the physical plants and facilities in the system, and to implement new programmes that will stimulate children to learn.

“We must commit our time and our resources to the sector. Qualified and educated persons need to volunteer their time to passing information on to the next generation,” he said. “Information that is not shared is useless.”

Jarrett suggested that one way to push for a drive for excellence in schools is to implement a rating system.

“The fact that education received one of the largest cuts of the national budget is nullified by the low, and even under-performance of our students – one of the main points raised in the Education Task Force report,” he said.

“The finances allocated to the education sector should be complemented by outstanding academic performance. The solution lies in implementing a public rating system for schools so that at the end of August each year, a report is published on the performance of every school, and a scorecard kept to indicate how the school is rated based on its performance,” Jarrett added.

This, he said, will help to monitor the performance of the schools and to match their output to the level of resources invested in the institution.

MOSA, meanwhile, honoured five Jamaicans that have made an outstanding contribution to the education sector with the Gold Medal Award – the highest honour bestowed on Miconians. The recipients included Dr Claude Packer, Gladstone Carty, Hugh Lawrence, Eric Frater and Ryland Campbell.

Dr Packer played a seminal role in many of the products of education system. Among them is the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Exam in Mathematics and the current degree granting status for the Mico University College.

Carty is a pioneer in technical education and adult learning.

He also helped to mold generations of Mico men, equipping them with skills to improve the technical competence of Jamaican youths, as head of the school’s Industrial Arts Department Frater, the first Miconian to join the Royal Air Force, introduced the first English Language laboratory, as well as the first speed reading machine to teach English in Jamaica.

Lawrence has distinguished himself in the service of education in various ways, including as education supervisor of District Council 37; Education and adjunct professor at Hudson Valley Community College of the State University of New York (SUNY).

Campbell – co-founder, president and CEO of Capital and Credit Financial Group – has established scholarships, such as the Ryland Campbell High School Scholarship Award for Caramel Primary School, and the Capital and Credit and Credit Scholarship Awards Programme, which provides four scholarships for needy students at the secondary and tertiary level.