In his recent report on the education sector in Jamaica, Professor Orlando Patterson stressed the urgency of transforming our education system to enable all Jamaicans to fulfil their potential and contribute to Jamaica’s development in the 21st century. This call to action is relevant for all seasons.

Our failure to make this happen has been attributed to an implementation deficiency. We all know what needs to be done, but we keep dithering. But, “Whatever the cost of education is, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.
— (Walter Cronkite)

Jamaica spends a comparable 5.2 per cent share of its GDP and a 19 per cent share of its government expenditure on education ( see chart).

However, this data does not tell the whole story. The more important statistic is the expenditure per capita on each student.

Our 2024/25 estimates of expenditure of $159.7 billion for the education budget, which serves approximately 495,500 students, of whom 232,000 are at the primary level, 211,800 at the secondary level, and 51,700 at the tertiary level.

This funding amounts to $322,000 or US$2,064 per student for the school year.

The OECD average is US$40,705 ($6,349,980) per student annually. A closer look at the breakdown is US$10,658 for primary students, US$11,942 for secondary students, and US$18,105 for tertiary students.

The United States and Norway spend US$66,511 and $57,234 annually per student across primary, secondary, and tertiary, respectively.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and Jamaica is spending about 5 per cent on education compared to other countries. With a per capita income of US$10,674 compared to Jamaica’s $6,047, Turkey spends US$17,999, or approximately eight times that of Jamaica.

This allocation seems inadequate if we are to transform this sector and give our students a quality education that makes them globally competitive in a world without boundaries.

It should be no surprise why our teachers are leaving our shores daily. They seek better wages, opportunities, and working environments.

I credit the Government for the recent increase in teachers’ salaries. Still, it does not go far enough if we are serious about addressing the problem of keeping our dedicated teachers in the classroom and attracting more talented Jamaicans to the profession.

Yet, it should not be all about money. Many of our teachers, through their commitment, have dedicated their lives to upliftment our children, no matter the personal cost to themselves and their families.

Over the years I have grown more saddened that the stature and reverence of the teacher in the society have diminished in the eyes of the public. We have to reverse that trend to renew the sector.

In the past teachers were viewed as your child’s second parents, and their wisdom and counsel were with them throughout their lifetime.

I remember my English language teacher, Mrs Bond, stressing, “Madam, it is not on A whole; it is on THE whole.”

Therefore, the Government and the private sector must treat our teachers with priority and more respect. Why don’t we give teachers priority at the National Housing Trust? Teachers with 10 years’ experience should require no deposit to qualify for a house; if you can’t trust a teacher after 10 years, who can you trust?

We should ask our hotels to offer free weekend stays to teachers on a space-available basis and have supermarkets or restaurants give unique discount cards to teachers with value limits. We should also incentivise tax deductibles to companies offering our teachers these unique specials. For example, 50 per cent of the discounts could be tax deductible.

I believe these national policies would create a mindset that says to our teachers “We appreciate the work you do”.

Why teachers and no one else? It is not because they are not other deserving professions. However, without a teacher, there would have been no other professions.

As I said last week, the current state of our educational system is unacceptable. The PEP exam indicated that most students were barely literate; 33 per cent could not read, 56 per cent could barely write, and only 45 per cent passed the diploma certificate in CAPE. This is a wake-up call yet again, and we must fix this.

These stats also show our implementation deficiency, which starts with a resource deficiency.

Let us define what we consider non-negotiable as a country:

(1) We must ensure that every child attending school has the means at home or school, is not hungry, and has access to healthy meals.

(2) Every child deserves a school place and a quality education.

(3) Priority must be given to early childhood and primary education. These objectives will not be achieved with the current financial allocation, so let us start by doubling the amount currently budgeted.

(4) The concept of ‘Free education’ should be replaced with ‘Every child has a right and should not be denied a quality education’ (even if you cannot afford to pay).

Suppose we divide the education budget to be funded 50 per cent by the private sector and 50 per cent by the Government. The private sector could have three sources of funding:

(1) Those based on a verifiable income criterion could pay the total cost for their children’s schooling.

(2) An education bond with interest tax-free five-year terms, marketed to locals and the Diaspora. People would access long-term loans to pay for their children’s education, which would be repayable from the future earnings of parent and or child.

(3) The establishment of an education lottery with both cash and corporate donated prizes. In the USA, the state primarily owns lotteries, and the operator gets a service fee, not the profits; they use the profits to fund education and other social services.

The result of improved sources of funding for education will result in more schools, more teachers, and better teacher-to-student ratios, resulting in a more educated population earning better wages and reduced crime.

We also need to reward schools that improve their test results with improved grants and scholarships for their students. We cannot continue with the vast disparity in school outcomes, with some schools achieving 0.048 per cent while others are achieving 64 per cent or 133 times better in the average CAPE per cent diploma (The Reform of Education in Jamaica, 2021).

So let’s stop talking and doing reports now. Let’s start implementing the suggestions that already exist. Hopefully, I have given some food for thought about how to fund them.