Opposition Leader Mark Golding has said that a future People’s National Party (PNP) Government will make education a priority to ensure the country achieves higher levels of economic growth.

He has argued that the current education system needs a new direction. He was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday as he made his contribution to the 2023/24 Budget Debate where he stated that a future PNP Administration will implement the recommendations of the Patterson report.

Additionally, he said the party will give priority treatment to early childhood development.

“This will be supported by a comprehensive policy to address the broader needs of children from birth onwards,” he stated.

Golding shared that the new direction will hone in on basic schools that are struggling to survive.

“Many are closing under the weight of high operating costs. We will make the investments required to raise the standard of our early childhood education system, and provide support so that teachers at basic schools can earn a reasonable salary. Time come to repair the foundation of our education system and set it in the right direction, a new direction,” he stated.

He also said the new direction will focus on transforming the first 11 years of every Jamaican child’s life as the country must achieve the outcome that “all our children are able to read, write and do basic arithmetic by Grade 4”.

The Opposition leader said that in primary schools, teaching will be supported by proper nutrition and deepening the use of educational technology. He said particular attention and emphasis will be placed on under-achieving primary schools, to raise standards across the board.

Golding also said several of the school-based social development interventions that were abandoned by the current Government “will be re-evaluated, updated and returned to schools across the island.”

And he said a PNP Government will remove the taxes from laptops and tablets for students and teachers, as has been done for racehorses.

“At the secondary level we will provide the support to education that is necessary to mitigate the effects of the negative social issues that are impacting students – teenage pregnancy, weak family structures, substance abuse, anger management and aggression,” he added.

“We have always seen education as the antidote to inter-generational poverty. Tertiary education must be accessible to those who need it most, so that they can positively transform their prospects in life,” said Golding.

He also repeated that a PNP administration will remove the requirement for guarantors for student loans across the board and will “cap the student loan borrower’s loan payments at a manageable percentage of his or her income, so that the State, not the student, bears the risk of the economy generating adequate employment opportunities.

“In periods of unemployment, we will suspend loan payments and tack them onto the back end of the loan, without penalties. We will eliminate the requirement of a guarantor for a student to access a student loan,” added Golding.

He said teachers also remain top of mind, “with the need to retain our teachers being greater than ever”.

“The new direction has required creative thinking, and our spokesperson for Education and Training has proposed a series of benefits with that objective in mind. We will ensure that teachers get student debt reductions and motor vehicle concessions at levels which increase with their years of service; that teachers benefit from enhanced access to NHT (National Housing Trust) loans and priority in housing allocations in NHT-financed schemes”.

Golding said the PNP will also negotiate a package deal to provide teachers with free internet service as a tool of their trade.

And the Opposition leader said the HEART NSTA Trust will be reinvigorated and re-purposed so that it provides the training opportunities needed to build a workforce that is fit for purpose for the employment opportunities of the 21st century global economy.