Dear Editor,

Sometimes the news can be extremely puzzling. One case is the recent item that at least two schools have locked away books needed by their pupils, and that such books were presumably “lost”. In any case, the gist of the story is that the government sent some $9 million worth of books to the schools for free distribution to needy students and one way or the other, the students failed to receive the books.

This is a fascinating, suspiciously tantalising tale. It could form the outline of an excellent detective novel, if it were not real. Let us look at the different parties involved. There is the government acting through the Ministry of Education, the donor of the textbooks. Then presumably, there should be a couple headmasters (or headmistresses) to whose schools the books were sent. Factor in at least two teachers who perform the task of supervising the sequestration of the books. The Parent Teachers’ Association’s local branches ought to have the interest of the students in mind and mediate between the teachers and the pupils, making sure the latter got their books. They must be included on the list. Finally, there are the needy students who must be entirely exonerated because they did not receive their books.

This is a case in which all the actors, except the students, bear some portion of the blame. Indeed, only the suffering students come away innocent in this scheme. All the others are atrociously negligent. As far as the government is concerned, the disappearing books are consonant with their conduct, except in this case the books were inaccessibly sequestered. With government, other sorts of negligence and delinquencies are not unknown. Think of all the other things for distribution in Jamaica that have disappeared! Then it is curious how the headmasters (or headmistresses) were unaware that the books were not given to the students. Presumably, the handing-out of books is an extremely rare event in those schools. Also curious is why $9 million worth of books attracted no one’s attention all this time. Those teachers get an F for their lack of curiosity. And as for the Parent Teachers’ Association, they were probably too busy to care about education. Now the really important question is how many other schools have non-distributed books in unopened rooms. Time for another televised Dudus-like Commission of Enquiry!

David Bingham

Washington, DC

USA