CHAIRMAN of the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange Professor Neville Ying has recommended that the authorities focus attention on holistic education for the nation’s children, instead of mainly on academics.

Ying, who was addressing the annual banquet of the Dinthill Past Students’ Association at Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston, said the process would encompass the social and personal development of students as well as their academic performance. He added that holistic education places special attention on the four education tenets of the United Nations Education and Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

These are: learning to learn, learning to do, learning to live and work with others, and learning to be prepared for a future that is unpredictable and uncertain.

Ying, a Dinthill past student, said the emphasis on holistic education would result in a greater impact on achieving important outcomes.

“The most important outcome is our education institutions producing graduates with competencies and skills that will make them fit for their new roles in a changing workplace that will be dominated by digital transformation,” he said.

He added that the holistic focus on education would give students self-confidence, allow them to have self-esteem, self-reliance, and practise good work ethic, as well as ethical behaviour.

He suggested, too, that “focus on the personal and social development of students” would also facilitate students having a working knowledge of emotional intelligence, which he said would assist students in recognising and managing their emotions, as well as identifying how to take into consideration the emotions of the diverse sets of persons with whom they will interact socially. In addition, he said, students should be able to leverage their emotional intelligence and competencies to build and maintain good relationships with others.

Professor Ying also reiterated that the focus on holistic education will help our educational institutions to positively transform the lives of students and that the process should provide the opportunity to achieve important transformational outcomes displayed by our students while in school and when they graduate.

Among the outcomes he cited were:

• Reduced involvement in crime and violence, including scamming.

• Reduced involvement in unethical behaviour.

• Less resistance to vaccinations.

• The practice of healthy lifestyles that would reduce the level of non-communicable diseases.

In the meantime, Ying has charged the Government to “fund technical high schools adequately to close the skills gap in Jamaica”.

Past presidents of the Dinthill Past Students Association, spanning four decades, were recognised for their exemplary leadership and outstanding service to the organisation. And in recognition of the school’s 85th anniversary, special recognition was given to members of the 1979 and 1981 daCosta Cup football teams for their amazing performances in winning the competition as well as sharing the Olivier Shield title with Kingston College in 1981.

Representing the teams at the fund-raising banquet were former daCosta Cup players Devon Brooks and Donald Hawthorne.