THERE has been the common view that it is not in the best interest of either the Jamaica Labour Party or the People’s National Party for Jamaica to have a highly educated populace. Indeed, one researcher has contended that this is the only thing that both parties seem to have an unwritten agreement on. A largely uneducated population can be easily manipulated by politicians and it is well known that an informed citizen is in the final analysis the greatest safeguard for the survival of any democracy.

The advent of garrison constituencies is grounded in this stance, as from all indications most of these partisan enclaves are primarily occupied by persons with very limited education. The bitter irony about all of this is that these are the individuals who most times decide which MPs sit in Gordon House and they are the ones who determine who runs this country from Jamaica House. Despite their pivotal influence in the ballot box, once they have cast their votes, they are no longer treated with any sense of priority. They are relegated to the status of “old naygah” and “lumpen”; they are used and then refused.

Against this background, the JLP’s free education policy is more a question of political expediency and a vote-catching exercise rather than a genuine attempt to help the less fortunate in the society. Why do I make such a harsh observation? I know that the hacks within that party will be attacking me for having taken such an extreme position, but how else can any well-thinking Jamaican interpret the current scenario in which public educational institutions are being marginalised, and teachers, especially principals, are being made to look like extortionists?

As chairman of two schools, one public and one private, I have had the personal experience of seeing how stressful and challenging it is to keep these institutions’ doors open. In the case of the government-owned schools, were it not for fund-raising and other legitimate means, including contributions from alumni associations (sometimes teachers have to take monies out of their own pockets to make ends meet), then these schools would have to be closed down. It is very unfortunate that the government continues to berate teachers who try to augment the schools’ revenues and to have them tarred and feathered in the media, making them look like common criminals. I for one cannot and will not side with the Golding administration in this insidious approach. It is cruel and it is marginalising education in this country.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all for free education, but let’s face it, nothing in this life is really free. Someone or something has to pay for it. And in this case, it is the taxpayers that pay for the people’s education, so therefore we should have a say. The potent question is, can Jamaica at this time afford free education as implemented by this government?

To put it bluntly, the schools are suffering and are having tremendous difficulties in keeping themselves afloat financially. When this is coupled with the vexing fact that teachers are owed billions of dollars in back pay and other emoluments, it becomes very clear that the education system is sitting on a powder keg. And in the end, it is the students who will suffer most. Picture this: a disgruntled teacher in charge of an overcrowded classroom, faced with several cutbacks and a hostile environment where parents backed by the government insist that it is “freeness time now”, so they (the parents) should not have to pay for any damn thing! This cannot work.

If the government is serious about quality education, which means at the end of the production line what we are turning out are useful and happy citizens, then the factory must be well equipped in order to remain productive. In real terms, therefore, this free education mantra may well turn out to be a classic way of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face! What sense does it make if when all is said and done this freeness produces individuals who are mentally enslaved, ill-equipped for the world of work, barely literate or numerate? Will this freeness be worth it, after all?

Education Minister Andrew Holness and his Cabinet colleagues need to revisit this free education policy and come up with a more pragmatic and equitable formula. The bottom line is that those persons who can pay fees of whatever kind that are justifiable and ratified by the Ministry of Education should be allowed to do so. It is no secret that subventions and other financial aids coming directly from government can barely pay the bills. As a result, principals and bursars are left to do all kinds of creative accounting as well as become perennial beggars in order to keep their plants functioning in the best interest of the children. In this regard, I lift my hat to the many teachers and principals in the Jamaican school system that have had to “tun dem han mek fashion”. Our teachers are true patriots because of the many sacrifices they have to make and the burdens they have to bear in order to provide quality education for our children. Indeed they are unsung heroes and heroines.

As we approach yet another period when we celebrate Emancipation and Independence, it behoves both the ruling JLP and the Opposition PNP to revisit this issue of free education. Lest we forget, Jamaica has one of the highest levels of illiteracy and non-productivity in the Caribbean and Latin American region. This country is also one of the most undisciplined, corrupt and crime-ridden in the world. Education must be the means by which we change all that for the better, not just freeness or states of emergency.

lloydbsmith@hotmail.com