Dear Editor,

A so it set since the Negro Education Grant of 1834 prescribed Jamaica’s education process as “a provision for regulating the condition of the negroes as may combine their welfare with the interests of the proprietors”, whose interest was to carry on the production of sugar.

A so it set, that by the time of Jamaica’s political independence in 1962, 67 per cent of Jamaicans could not read or write.

A so it set, that the Government introduced a popular adult literacy programme named Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL).

A so it set, that it was only in the mid-1970s that Government provided a primary school space for every primary age Jamaican child.

A so it set, that by the 1980s Jamaica experienced, each year, 50,000 11-year-old children seeking to fill only 14,000 secondary school spaces.

A so it set, that is why we established the Common Entrance Placement Examination, placing the highest-scoring 14,000 and telling the rest that they had “failed” the Common Entrance Examination, many a child’s self-confidence scarred for life, but a so it set.

A so it set, that in this the 21st century, when Government has provided a full secondary school space for every secondary school-aged Jamaican child, we still perpetuate the apartheid more desirable traditional high school, less desirable secondary school segregation system, which only produces 30 per cent of the grade 11 cohort graduating with the five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subject passes, including English language and mathematics, deemed equivalent internationally to a high school diploma.

A so it set, that, in spite of years ago introducing a diagnostic assessment process for 11-year-old primary school leavers entering secondary education called the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), which was an assessment intended to provide the principal of the receiving secondary school with a learning/achievement profile of each incoming student, we termed this diagnostic assessment a test, and focused it entirely on the achievement scores earned to determine each child’s school placement prospects within the apartheid secondary school system that continues to produce 30 per cent acceptable output, because a so it set.

A so it set, that, in spite of recently introducing yet another diagnostic process for 11-year-old primary school leavers, and expressly calling the process the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), we still refer to this snap shot assessment process as an exam, still to be used as the basis to determine children’s placement within the apartheid secondary school system that we stubbornly maintain.

A so it set, that is why we continue to spend billions of dollars on the educational remediation and training of thousands of youngsters who recently completed 11 years of publicly funded primary and secondary education, instead of spending those billions of dollars to truly transform the education system.

A so it set, that is why in our Jamaican workforce only 30 per cent of our workers hold at least a high school diploma (5 CSEC subjects), while in the workforces of our major trading partners, over 90 per cent of their workers hold at least a high school diploma. Their high-quality/high-skill workforces attract job-creating investments that produce good paying jobs that require workers with at least a secondary education and certification, already trained or trainable, the quality workforce that Jamaica does not have, because a so it set.

Why can’t we resolve to “unset” this 1834 dysfunction, complete the long-delayed transformation of our education system reset to ensure that each Jamaican child is effectively and appropriately educated, empowered, and enabled to create value.

Robert Gregory

gregoryrobert6@gmail.com