ST THOMAS, Jamaica – Principal of Yallahs High School in St Thomas, Mark Malabver, believes that early childhood and primary education need their own minister if they are to develop to address modern needs.

Speaking to OBSERVER ONLINE on the findings of the Orlando Patterson-led Jamaica Education Transformation Commission (JETC) Malabver said that such a move would drive the transformation that is badly needed in education.

He said with the responsibilities that the Ministry of Education has, it is viewed by many in the industry as a super ministry, hence breaking it up would give primary and early childhood education more attention.

Malabver revealed that principals have long been advocating for resources be diverted to early childhood and primary education to fix the issues there so that there would be less need for intervention at the secondary level.

 “I think that there may be a need to separate early childhood and primary education from The Education Ministry. When you do that the early childhood can get the level of attention that it deserves with its own minister and permanent secretary to drive the transformation down there and that is important,” he argued.

Overall, he said, the JETC Report gets a high passing grade.

“… it is actually a very good report. I would certainly give it an ‘A-‘ because it has really hit some points,” he said 

Malabver pointed out that the report validates the concerns of educators, who have been constantly speaking about the pitfalls of the education system and how best to resolve some of those challenges.

“In reality, a lot of what is in that report is nothing new. My colleague principals, who have been having a number of meetings with Ministry of Education officials, would have identified these issues in those forums and would have been agitating and advocating that these issues be addressed,” he said.

Lauding the report, Malabver said he is elated that it pointed to a need to establish an oversight committee to assess how recommendations from the report will be implemented.

“I think it will go a far way in giving guidance and ensuring accountability certainly within the Ministry of Education as it related to getting the changes needed,” he added.

He noted that he is in agreement with the recommendation to make the regions more autonomous within the context of driving educational transformation.

He commended the authors of the Report who stressed the importance of funding of the education system. “That is a critical thing and something that I personally advocated for as principal.  The current funding model does not lend itself to equity within the education system. Certainly, that needs to be looked at,” he said.

However,  Malabver has some issues with aspect of the report. He said there is a component of the report that seems to suggest that the education system, as a percentage of GDP, is properly funded, especially when you look at it from a comparative standpoint with other countries.

“I believe that approach is very superficial. When you look at Finland, for instance, it spends an average of J$1.6 million per child. In Jamaica we are only $300,000 plus per child in our education system. The Ministry needs to ascertain the unit cost to educate a child, given the different levels, dynamics and variables that exist within the education system,” he said.

He said once that is known, a budget reflective of the needs in education and one that is properly funded can be done.

“One of the shortcomings, to me, in respect to the Patterson Report is that it spoke to the need for a philosophy of education in respect to student engagement. What it didn’t speak to in a definitive way is what philosophical approach is it that the leadership of the education system need to adopt to get the changes that are needed within the education system,” Malabver said as he dissected the report.

In the meantime, Malabver said that the University of Technology has failed in its mandate to drive innovation in the Caribbean.

He said that the Patterson report constantly spoke about the fourth industrial revolution and the technological aspect to it “but which tertiary institution is pushing that agenda and the report didn’t speak to that.”

“Certainly, for me, the University of Technology (UTech) has missed the mark on that. In my view, UTech should be the MIT of the Caribbean, but the truth is there is nothing very technological about the University of Technology it is just a traditional university,” he claimed.

He believes UTech has missed its mandate in that regard. “I would have liked for the report to point to the value added aspect of it because for me within the context of the fourth industrial revolution the University of Technology should have been on the cutting edge.”

Anthony Henry