JAMAICA is rich in the history of wealth production, international trade, shipping and naval warfare. Port Royal was one of the most important ports for the British in the world. There was also a rich history of the application of science and technology in the sugar industry prior to the Industrial Revolution in Europe.

Sugar was not linked or integrated into the wider Jamaican society and educational system. Its interest was external and it had no renewal qualities. In the case of bauxite, the investors came in at the early years of the 1944 University Adult Suffrage and the new self-government administration. In whose interest was the bauxite deal negotiated? Did we share the wealth? Did we make up for the shortfall in food production in the bauxite expansion? In the past we have had single projects that have been sold as a “driving force” for the rest of the economy and country. In recent years we were told how the highway project would have been another “driving force” for the economy and country. The idea of the new developments in Panama and the prospect and promises of the logistics hub became a central theme from Government and private sector leaders. It is important to look at this mega project within the context of history of major projects and negotiation strength of our policy makers. It is important for the wider society to be informed and participate in this ‘hub’ debate. We have to act quickly, but we must do it together, against the tradition of the rush into debate during the ‘Federation’ debates and the constitutional debates in the 1960s. We should use the hub debate to search for a popular vision for national development.

Conceptually, a logistics hub, well integrated into broad themes, including the application of science and technology to the wider society, can be a transformative force for the country and educational system. What comes first, the hub or the transformation in education? Should we have both together? Logistics has to do the flow of products from sites of production to destination using strategic, tactical and operational approaches to decision-making. These approaches have been borrowed from military operations in production and distribution of war materials from the point of production to the point of distribution in the most efficient and secure manner. Logistics is the key function for success in this process. This strategic course of action has been co-opted into corporate and global business in the form of supply chain management. This combination oversees the flow of goods and services, information, human resources in the most efficient manner from one point to another. It is important to note the critical role of ICT to optimise the processes in the supply chain; and secondly the need to have a new mindset; critical thinking skills to inform the strategic, tactical and operational decision-making process associated with the logistics hub.

The role of ICT is operationalised into the following themes: IT services, hardware and software applications, telecommunications equipment; semi-conductors; and areas combining computer engineering and electrical, also with civil engineering and linkages with Global Information System, Global Positioning System, meteorology, and navigation. Participants in the hub scenario must be able to use software applications in shipping, transportation management, logistics, inventory control, and Customs functions. It is important to note that the public sector has a serious role in the process, especially in the areas of education, Customs and the postal service. The post should not miss out on these new transformative engagements as it did in the parcel and related services revolution.

The kind of educational support required for the logistics hub prepares Jamaicans not only to work in the sector but providing them with the education required for the 21st century society and economy. The functioning of the logistics hub and the present global economy requires a revolution in education in Jamaica, a movement from rote learning to critical thinking. The latter informs decision-making, effective reading and communication skills; especially the analytical skills to review supply and demand trends, among other things. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking skills informing an intelligent record-keeping system relating to supply chain management and inventory control. The required changes in education have to begin at once to prepare the required workforce at all levels in the logistics hub: post-secondary, technical and vocational, and tertiary levels.

Some of the broad areas associated with the logistics hub have great implications for education and society in Jamaica in direct and auxiliary services: the chemical industry, alternative energy sources, agriculture and food, biomedical and environmental engineering, life and health sciences, high-tech systems in communications systems, hybrid and electrical vehicles, assembling automotive components, storage, property management, repairs of industrial and medical devices and trans-shipment activities. There has to be a quick and prolonged response in education to prepare our share of workforce for this encounter with the hub in particular, and the wider Jamaican society in general. There has to be a philosophical response in education moving away from rote learning to a critical thinking and science-based curriculum. New approaches require integrated ICT in business, logistics and transportation management, import and export business, ocean cargo logistics, commercial geography, ocean and air freight forwarding, property management, business law, and related and Customs studies.

These qualities associated with the logistics hub go beyond that entity. They are a reflection of a world that has been transformed by science and its application of technology. The hub debate has revealed how far behind we are as a nation for the 21 century. Those qualities are 21st century qualities for the global economy and trade. Peter Drucker, for example, in The New Realities (1990) and The Post-Capitalist Society (1994), against the background to the new scientific and technological revolution, advances the ideas of the new knowledge economy and the emerging transnational enterprise. Those works advance a reasonable guide to the new world economic order. Prior to these publications there were works looking at the need for the curriculum to respond to the impact of this new revolution in industry on society and work, inspiring “thinking in future tense”. Our policymakers must ensure that policy review and planning is guided by research. There is the need for broad discussions on the way forward. Lessons form the past must not be ignored, they must guide policymakers towards reasonable gains for the national interest in the negotiations from mega investment projects.

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