JAMAICA Independent School Association (JISA) has questioned what it says is the absence of any true indicators to measure the success of the much-touted Transforming Education for National Development (TREND) programme.

According to president of JISA Tamar McKenzie, information on the indicators of success of the transformation programme — driven by the Education Ministry to improve the system in line with the recommendations of the 2021 Professor Orlando Patterson Jamaica Education Transformation Commission Report — has been disturbingly sparse.

“Some of the challenges that we have from JISA with the transformation in education would include, but are not limited to, for example the indicators of success that were given. To date, we have not seen an itemised list of the indicators of success to manage or at least measure the programme. We have seen the launches, we have seen the different activation activities, but we have not received what it is that the Ministry of Education, its technocrats, its consultants, will use to measure the success of the programme,” McKenzie told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

According to the Ministry of Education, TREND is focused on positioning Jamaica to become a more globally competitive nation. The implementation spans between 2023 and 2030 and, therefore, aligns with Jamaica’s Vision 2030 development goals. It says, based on the 365 recommendations from the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission Report, TREND will improve performance at all levels of the education system.

But, according to the JISA president, exactly how the overall goals will be achieved has not been made clear.

“What we have heard so far is that where literacy is concerned, by 2031 grade four literacy will move from 56 per cent to 92 per cent. We are seeing that they are pushing to have numeracy moved from 60 per cent to 80 per cent within the same time period. And, one of the challenges we have with these two indicators is because of the issue we have with math tutors in Jamaica.

“With the deficit we continue to have, how we will move the literacy levels from 60 per cent to 80 per cent, that’s a major challenge for us,” McKenzie said while demanding to know “how the indicators of success for the literacy and numeracy goals [were] developed”.

“Was it done through consultation with the different stakeholder groups, such as the principals and the practitioners on the ground?” she asked, noting, “Because of the challenges we are having on the ground it really makes you question how feasible these indicators are. How did we come up with these figures?”

She also questioned the “365 recommendations” that have been widely spoken about.

“We have heard of 365 recommendations that are being implemented, one per day. I have gone through the report and seen 167 activities — it doesn’t amount to 365 — and the 109 recommendations that have been made in the Patterson report; it is being used synonymously with 365 recommendations so it is creating confusion that has to be resolved. At no point did the Patterson report outline the 365 recommendations, not in the full report or the abridged version. We have only seen 109 recommendations so there needs to be a clear distinction between what the 109 recommendations are versus the activities that would result in the action plan,” she said further.

JISA, she said, also has concerns about ASANA, the platform being used to track the activities surrounding the entire transformation programme.

“Who uploads the data set into ASANA? How is ASANA monitored? How is it evaluated, and who is charged with the evaluation of the data? Is it the project manager? The chief consultant? Is it the chief transformation officer? And, importantly, where does the data come from that is being uploaded? How is the data managed in a way that we can say it is authentic?” she wanted to know.

Stating that JISA harbours major concerns about the “integrity of the data set”, McKenzie further said,“When you listen to a lot of the data coming out of TREND, it is nebulous; you are hearing terms like ‘many’, ‘so much’, we are not actually getting figures and it makes you wonder: ‘How do we get the figures that we are using?’ ”

In the meantime, the JISA president said there is growing concern amongst stakeholders that since the start of TREND in March 2023 there have been at least two major changes in leadership, with one resignation in December 2023 and one in April 2024.

“When you look at these major leadership changes that have not been properly announced or even managed, we don’t know what is happening or why did they resign. It really creates discomfort, and I think it is something that we need to look at in terms of what is the stability of the transformation team that will be driving the change that we need to truly transform education in Jamaica. That is a major issue that we need to look at,” McKenzie told the Sunday Observer.

She, in the meantime, said private schools and special needs stakeholders, “were not accounted for in the education transformation plan” in any meaningful way, which is a major sore point.

“The fact that we were not accounted for in the transformation plan really affects how much we are able to achieve because the Ministry of Education cannot account for the 60,000 students in our system. If our 60,000 students were to exit, they are not going to find space in the public education system for them so how do we transform education as a whole [when] we are not integrating the needs of our private school students — and especially our special needs students in a wholesome way —, where they are included at the top of the agenda like all other children?” McKenzie queried.

She also asked for information on expenditure towards items such as advertisements.

The Patterson report recognised seven pillars of transformation within the education sector — namely governance, legislation, leadership and administration; early childhood education; curriculum teaching and teacher training; the tertiary sector, technical and vocational education and training; infrastructure and technology; and financing.

The transformation of the country’s education system will cost $280 billion over 20 years and some $166 billion in the first seven years of the programme.