OPPOSITION spokesman on education Senator Damion Crawford has expressed scepticism that the Andrew Holness-led Administration can change the fortunes of what he says is a failed education system.

Crawford, responding to Wednesday’s appointment of former Education Minister Fayval Williams as minister of finance, and naming of Senator Dana Morris Dixon the new education minister, said that any “change” in the leadership of the ministry is “welcomed”. He described Senator Morris Dixon as “enthusiastic and learnt”.

“We expect her to put her best foot forward but the issues we have with education, however, are not personal and so the ideological differences that exist between the People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party gives us little hope that the correct policies will be implemented for the education transformation that we want to see, but we remain willing to support and to advise as we can, and we will continue to be the vanguards of the teachers, the parents and the students who are unfortunately being robbed of a reasonable opportunity through our education system,” a caustic Crawford said on Thursday.

Williams replaced former Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke who demitted office on Wednesday to take up a deputy managing director post at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to Crawford, the Opposition is “hoping to see dramatic shift and changes in how the education ministry currently operates, and in the ministry’s unfortunate stance to blame teachers for whatever failings they have had”.

He added:“The Opposition welcomes any change that has been made from the failings of the past minister of education and expects, given that the bar has been set so low that any individual willing to put their shoulders to the wheel should be able to do better than what we were seeing in the execution of education improvements and in the results that we were getting from education,” Crawford said cuttingly.

He, in the meantime, grudgingly congratulated his former Government counterpart on her elevation.

“I congratulate Fayval Williams on being promoted. I hope she understands and recognises that equal performance will not be accepted at that ministry but at the same time being the first female to lead the Ministry of Finance, I congratulate her and wish her the best as well and hope that she is more aligned and au fait. Her training seems to be more aligned and maybe her interest is more aligned with that ministry than the Ministry of Education. So on a personal note, I congratulate and indeed thank her for whatever efforts she made in education, but presume that she finds a better fit for her talents, her interest, and her training in this ministry than she did in the education ministry,” Crawford said.

Morris Dixon, who was minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, with responsibility for information, skills, and digital transformation, is a 2004 Fulbright scholar and an alum of The University of the West Indies (UWI) where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Economics (First Class Honours) and a Master of Science in Government (Distinction). She is also a graduate of Josef Korbel School of International Studies where she completed a PhD in International Studies as well as the executive programme of the Harvard Business School.

Williams is a chartered financial analyst (CFA) by profession, has an MBA with concentration in finance from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA (cum laude) in Economics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

— Alicia Dunkley-Willis