The Editor,

Education Minister Senator Ruel Reid is finally getting it right. Despite all the great minds before, no one was able to identify and to address the disadvantage our present educational system bequeathed on our blighted youngsters from making good of their true potential.

Senator Reid is now concluding that the Caribbean Secondary Education Examinations Council (CXC) will be replaced by the National School Leaving Certificate as the minimum standard required for entry-level jobs.

For argument’s sake, if we have 80 per cent of students achieving grades one to three in CXC subjects, what about the other 20 per cent? What will become of them within our society?

This is the side of the equation we have long left unsolved and ignored. This is where I believe we end up with unwanted pregnancies and males on the street corners searching their hand middles.

For too long as a society we have planted in our youngsters that the path to achievement is to become a lawyer or doctor, hence, such higher bar is set for just about everyone.

I recommend that the Senator Reid critics look at Germany’s school systems along with their industrial positive outcomes, and we are sure to gain insights as to how best our youths can contribute meaningfully to Jamaica, rather than becoming wasted or lost among us.

As a lecturer, too many times I witness students with the aptitude to matriculate into a promising and diversified system of learning, but face the disadvantage of not having financial support or not able to achieved the required amount of subjects so they are left roaming with uncertainty to their future.

I saw an advertisement recently, where a “Warehouse Clerk” was needed and the required qualification was five subjects to include Math and English.

Now, shouldn’t a school leaving certificate be sufficient ? That school leaving certificate should guarantee employer’s that the prospective persons seeking employment can read, do math (calculate), advance comprehension (literary technique) and be able to articulate among his or her peers. If that is the case the senator has my vote.

Neville Grant