In previous articles, I expressed the view that academic, technical/vocational and social education must be the main strands of school education. At the early childhood and primary levels, in particular, social education must be a priority for it will determine to a great extent outcomes in academic and technical/vocational education at the secondary and tertiary levels. However, the experience (even evidence) is that social education is left far behind the other two strands and it is now cause for concern.

When students learn to play together, play with objects, cooperate, share, give and take, recognise right from wrong, have a sense of spirituality, relate positively to the environment, be independent thinkers while recognising the fact of interdependence, they soon learn to be cooperative and focused learners. Their experience in handling and playing with objects soon arouses their curiosity about the nature of the objects. This in turn leads them to experimentation and further manipulation of the things around them. The desire and love for academic and technical pursuits is thus born. The genesis is personal and social education. Of course, values and attitudes as well as moral education are integral parts of personal and social education.

I am returning to the issue of social education for two reasons. It should be an end in itself and a means of fostering academic and technical/vocational skills and knowledge. The obvious falling-off in social education is increasingly manifesting itself in more astounding and daring behaviour in schools. If not checked with an extraordinary programme of intervention, the problem will continue to spiral out of control and lead to many schools becoming virtual zones of combat. In this case, the teachers’ role of facilitating learning and motivating learners will be subordinated to a policing role despite the establishment of a “dean of discipline” at some schools. Of course, we are aware of initiatives being taken by the authorities to stem the tide but these initiatives are not far-reaching enough to make a major difference.

Often enough we have startling reports of daring acts in schools, but we can guess that many more gross acts of indiscipline and violence are kept “hush hush” because understandably many schools wish to avoid the negative exposure. The fact is that anti-social acts and a severely short supply of social capital are hurting all types of schoolwork, including academic work. The country needs to reflect on the gravity of the problem and address it frontally.

The relative lack of social education has got so bad in some schools that coverage of the curriculum cannot be achieved. Learning is negatively affected by the absence of an environment of order and quietude. Disciplined and academically weak students who want to spend more time studying in a quiet environment often have to abort such intentions because of social friction around. Some lessons get at most 75 per cent of allotted time because of disruptive bad behaviour that has to be settled before teaching can proceed. Were it not for programmes such as Peace and Love in Schools, the situation would have been worse, however.

Increasingly, many teachers are complaining that as soon as they settle one disciplinary problem, two or three more problems demand their attention and settlement elsewhere. One obvious consequence is the severe curtailment of time to address the learning needs of the students. Another consequence is that many effective teachers are now expressing the desire to take early retirement rather than to remain in the classroom and be totally stressed out at the mandatory retirement age of 60. This development could make the situation worse and in fact is a wake-up call. The situation is significant enough for tracking and study.

Although most elements of social education exist in the school curricula, the society has steadfastly placed more value on the academic and technical/vocational strands and has put great pressure on students and teachers to produce good grades and academic results even at the expense of social education. When results are considered poor, some in the society lambast the teachers. Even some ministers of government join the fray to criticise even though their own actions or inaction might have contributed significantly to poor results. Few analyse critically the issues involved and fewer see any links between the softer skills of social education and poor performance in external examinations.

In no way is the problem of fast-declining social education competence and practice unique to Jamaica but on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 the highest, Jamaica may just be scored at 3. Some countries are working assiduously on the problem and seem to be obtaining positive results. Scotland and Wales come to mind where there is a structured and intensive programme from age 5 to 16 incorporating content on local and global communities, sexuality education, spirituality, morals and environmental issues. Our authorities should examine whether we can learn something from these countries.

We know that a programme of values and attitudes was introduced in the 1990s but it did not receive widespread support and was even undermined by public displays of negative attitudes and values in public places including the Parliament. There was also somewhat of a counter and partisan proposal of “character education”. Of course, both had common elements. However, we must strive to revive the ideas in a way that does not portray partisan one-upmanship. Partisan political functionaries should be kept out of the leadership as well. All acceptable means must be found to fast-track a well-coordinated and intensive social education intervention that is fused into every school subject and taught generally within and outside the schools.

The school cannot be expected to bear all the responsibility of building social capital through the educational process. The family, community, church, religion, small and large businesses as well as labour must reinforce what the school does through the curriculum and co-curricular activities in fostering and developing social capital. Almost routinely the positive work done by the school is undone swiftly by the wider society, hence the need for everyone to get and be kept on board in a supportive and complementary way.

Whose call is it for leadership action now?

wesebar@yahoo.com