Recently I arrested a young man who attended high school, almost up to completion, and still could not read. I wish I could tell you that this is unusual. Unfortunately, it is happening more often than not.

The majority of young men I arrest can barely read and write. In fact, almost all of them attended a high school! I can’t fathom how you can even function in a high school environment and not be significantly literate.

At Calabar High, which I attended in the 80s, it was a constant concern among many of my classmates and I that we would not be promoted if we did not get an average of over 50 per cent. It was actually quite possible that even reasonably talented people could end up with an average below 50 per cent because there were subjects in which you could easily get zero.

A perfect example for me was Spanish and technical drawing, for which I neither attended classes nor knew anything whatsoever about the subject matter. I still can’t draw a straight line. That being said, you can understand how difficult it is for me to understand how you could pass from form to form if you can’t even read. What I find equally confusing is that many of the people who I’ve arrested for scamming can barely read. How can you be so simplistic that a man who can’t even read is able to deceive you?

Then there is the unusual presence in this particular crime of young men who attended traditional high schools. There is, however, a major concern with this group. This is literally the only crime that I see people from traditional schools being arrested for. I am not saying that people who attend traditional schools are not arrested for other offences. I am saying that they are rarely, if ever, arrested by me, and that they are not often seen in the jails in St Catherine, by comparison to those who attended non-traditional high schools.

So we have a position where a group of young men are becoming participants in the criminal justice system, who under normal conditions would not be so exposed. They, by extension, will be prevented from participating or making use of most of the opportunities that people who have not been prosecuted, can enjoy.

Although many of you are saying “good, they shouldn’t have committed the crime” and I sort of agree with you, you must also recognise that this is increasing the group of men who will virtually have no opportunities that will prevent them from perpetuating a life of crime that make innocent people like yourselves victims.

This is not new. The crack wars of the 90s fought between law enforcement and typically young African-American males in cities like Los Angeles resulted in the subjugation of almost an entire generation of males in the black community. This served to damage the progress of the group as a whole, rather than just those who were affected. It certainly ended the crack epidemic, but it criminalised a significantly large group of people, and adjusted the trajectory of the black community of that era as a whole.

What we are now experiencing is going to have an impact on far too many young men who don’t need to be criminals, but have chosen to become one because of greed and a culture of wanting everything without being willing to work for anything.

There is an alarming recurrence of certain schools in Portmore and this phenomenon of illiterate men who reached 10th grade. I am not going to name these schools at this point, I am going to visit them to find out how the hell you can become a fourth former participating in a Caribbean Examinations Council curriculum if you can’t spell apple. Then I am going to see if I can help them, but I will not stay silent on this issue if I see it perpetuated continually.

Now, I understand that many of these non-traditional high schools are the recipients of those students who did not make the grade to attend traditional schools. This is just how our matriculation programme works. Irrespective of what letters we choose to throw together as a name, whether it is PEP, GSAT, Common Entrance, or 11+, it doesn’t really matter. The non-traditionals get the bottom of the academic barrel. I truly understand this. I am currently involved in a programme, for several years, in at least one non-traditional high school.

The question I ask, however, is, are you telling me that in four years you can’t teach someone to read and write? I can’t accept that. If I was in charge of an educational institution, and you send me 11-year-olds who can’t read and write I am going to separate them from those who can, and for the next few months or years, their education is going to be about surpassing the hurdle of being literate, and to hell with the programme that the Ministry of Education wants me to pursue with this lot that can’t spell the word magnet.

Fire me if you must, but I am not going to graduate people who can’t read and write year after year, form after form. I have never met an educator who has admitted to me that they are promoting students year after year who cannot read. So how do they explain how it happens, because trust me, it’s happening at an alarming rate.

There are schools doing something that I know is not right and they know is not right, but what of the parents? We often let them off lightly. I had a conversation with a criminal lawyer, who is a friend of mine. I inquired if he could shed some light on this phenomenon of people attending high school with kindergarten literacy skills. He laid the blame on the parents who he believes don’t really care what the children are doing. When you think about it, he has a point.

My father was an intelligent man, but he didn’t attend college. It was, however, so important to him that I was going to attend a university. I can’t see how I could attend a high school, get zeros on every report card and still keep all my teeth in my head. This simply couldn’t happen, unless I had a learning disability. And even then I am sure he would have found a cure for it.

I want you to think of the various issues I have brought to bear in this article. We have an entire typology of people that would normally not be exposed to the criminal justice system who are now going to be exposed. We have a group of people going through our high school system who read significantly worse than your six-year-old. We therefore have teachers, institutions, and parents who are failing miserably, and we are not calling them out.

Phenomenons are what cause future catastrophes. When things happen at macro rates of occurrence they impact society similarly. We therefore need to conduct a study very quickly as to what percentage of people being graduated to 10th grade in non-traditional schools are functionally literate. Then, and only then, will we be in a position to develop strategies to combat this. We are struggling to find workers to supply our workforce. We simply cannot afford to be tying up our successful high school graduates in prison.

Now, let me be clear, all persons who commit criminal offences must be prosecuted and face the same consequences, irrespective of their educational level. That doesn’t mean we must pretend there are no consequences to the economy and to society if suddenly hundreds of males, who we have spent a fortune to educate yearly at good high schools, are turning to crime and going to jail. There are consequences, and we must measure them, prepare for them and research possible solutions.

I have seen over the last 30 years things happening that I knew would have disastrous consequences, from the introduction of Colonel Trevor MacMillan, who lead the Jamaica Constabulary Force in the 90s, to the creation of the Indecom Act and Indecom itself, to the crack epidemic, the first deportee crisis and the transforming of secondary schools to high schools without improving them.

I warned of the consequences, nobody listened.

The better educated criminal will be the cause of far less predictable gangs. The absence of so many people from the workforce will cause the introduction of a new immigrant group if we are to fill the needs of our growing economy.

I don’t even want to think of the consequences if our high schools keep on with this practice of promoting students year after year from form to form just to fill quotas. I would, however, love to hear the contorted logic of the officer from the Ministry of Education justifying this practice if for no other reason than to give me an opportunity to stare madness in the face.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com