THIS letter is inspired by some pronouncements from you last week, and by an article I read in the Huffington Post yesterday, titled “Netherlands close eight prisons due to lack of criminals”.

First published in 2013, the report said the densely populated Western European country of just under 17 million, has a smaller prison population than its projected 14,000 and as such was closing some facilities. The Netherlands, as you know, ranks high on quality of life indices, and its people among the happiest in the world. It operates a mixed economy and, outside the United States, is the largest exporter of food and agricultural products.

Jamaica, I believe, has the potential to accomplish comparable successes, certainly in reducing our criminal population by dismantling the structures that produce them and, in a parallel effort, grow into a thriving society. Basic sociology explains the correlation between criminality and unproductivity. Think of the possibility for food production for feeding ourselves, exporting food to the world, and creating opportunities for the rural poor.

It is from this perspective that I come when I demand better of our leaders; not from a desire to “talk bad bout Jamaica”. That is asinine thinking from people with limited cognitive skills; not a single problem in the history of human civilisation has ever been solved by pretending that it does not exist. Those who deny the problems cannot, then, be a part of the solution.

Your ministry, Minister Thwaites, has the most critical role to play in Jamaica’s ability to realise its highest potential. This includes training students how to problem-solve and equipping them with the technical, conceptual and affective skills that they will need to survive in a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

Do you not think, sometimes, about what the world will be like a generation (30 years) from now? What is your vision for Jamaica then? How are you advancing it? What is the greatest legacy that you want to leave behind?

Many of us will be gone then, but great societies grow from the consciousness of each generation. Human/societal development is a relay. We have to run hard and make a clean changeover so the next generation gets a decent start. I will say it again: Our post independent leadership has largely failed to do this. In some cases, the grand plans never got off the ground, and in others, positive contributions have been cancelled out by devastating negatives, which account for where we are today.

You know the data; we are below midfield. That is not a position of strength, and it’s little wonder so many of our people see the race as unwinnable — which stops them from tossing the baton and raging at the circumstances that have left them so far behind.

Within the context of our national failures, some politicians increasingly talk of personal responsibility, pointing fingers away from themselves. Theoretically, we are “masters of our fates”, but if you put a bird in a cage and expect it to fly, the joke is on you. If you think it should not wail for freedom lost, for the opportunities to soar as high as nature intended; if you think the songs from the depth of that cage should be songs of gratitude and joy, rather than rage or sorrow, that’s one more joke on you.

Parents and children do not build schools or make policies, and children are not in charge at home or at schools. All of us function within the confines of power relationships. If you are at the top, you have the power and the authority to create the structures within which those at the other end must function. The political leadership, then, is responsible for creating enabling environments within which people grow and thrive. In this regard, most do well for themselves and their cronies, but not so much for the broad constituencies.

At this juncture, you have responsibility for education. I would love to know how you grade yourself, particularly when it comes to your leadership defined by thinking that is clear, methodical, strategic and visionary — big picture thinking that will ultimately result in an education system that is relevant and equitable. How well do you communicate those to your constituents?

I ask because I am looking for the big picture — looking to see how you are adding real value — how you are separating the public relations dimension of transformation from the hard structural/operational changes that need to be done so that the goals of public education can be achieved; how you are separating the minutiae from the substance of what is required of a modern education system. Public policy, as you know, ought not to be used to give some people unfair advantage over others. It should not create or reinforce inequities and discrimination, which our education system has done for as long as it exists and continues to do. Do you think enough is being done to change this?

Successive administrations have tinkered with the system but have done little to enhance what should be the goal of public education — efficiency, relevance and equity. How efficient is the system currently? What are our most globally competitive secondary education programmes and where are they located? How level is the playing field at the primary and secondary levels? What are the biggest constraining factors to equity?

Your announcement last week about the placement of Grade Six Achievement Test students close to home raised these questions and more. I found your handling of the matter disappointing because it trivialised an issue that requires urgent attention guided by sound thinking, and it, ultimately, ignored the substantive discussion that needs to be had about mutual stakeholder accountability and reducing vulnerability and promoting equity within the system.

I am one of those who is consistently critical of the layout of the education infrastructure, which is urban-centred and imposes undue hardships on poor rural families, but the problem is complex and the approach, even with the clarification, is reductionist.

I wish you thoughtfulness as this dialogue continues.

Grace Virtue, PhD, is a social justice advocate.