Dear Editor,

Education is an undeniable right for every single person, and it goes without saying that education has a positive effect on all human life.

Marcus Garvey said: “A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact,” so only with an education can one gain real knowledge and extend one’s view of the world in which one lives.

The old cliché is even more so relevant in today’s world — for the absolute majority: “education is the key to success”. And if thought about deeply, we would also realise that success is a lock that you can’t pick.

This brings into focus the education of our nation, the availability and access to a proper education as the world evolves into a more diverse place. Happily today, after a hiatus in the 1980s, the focus has now returned to appropriately educating the masses for a better life and country.

I recall the lamentation of some when then Minister of Education Maxine Henry-Wilson and her predecessor Burchell Whiteman worked on the conversion of the then secondary schools into high schools. Look at what a difference this has made in the lives of many “late bloomers” that would have been otherwise cast aside had these additional places and upgraded institutions not been created.

Not being political here, but historically most of our educational advancements seem to be projects of the ruling party dating as far back as 1957 when Norman Manley introduced the Common Entrance Examination, now Grade Six Achievemnet Test; the converted training centres into technical high schools; and the establishment of the College of Arts, Science & Technology, now the University of Technology, Jamaica.

More recently, Minister Rev Ronald Thwaites has sought to build on a strong foundation and, as a nation, we continue to make strides in education, but we still have some way to go. I implore him, and any other who may follow, to continue this push to widen the access through the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education, and maintain the school feeding programme which assists some 125,000 pupils of the early childhood cohort. Thanks for making education accessibility widespread in Jamaica and for carrying on the good work of those who came before.

Education is too important for a nation to neglect.

Thalia McDonald

thalia.mcdonald@yahoo.com