Opposition spokesman on education Damion Crawford says Jamaica’s long-standing productivity problems are rooted in failures within the country’s education system, warning that weak educational outcomes are leaving large numbers of young people unprepared for meaningful participation in the economy.

Making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Crawford said the failures within the education sector were not isolated incidents but part of a wider systemic problem stretching from early childhood education to the labour force.

“The evidence of failure is documented, consistent and undeniable. Causes of failure are structural, chronic and policy-driven and the inadequate responses are generally immaterial and has fallen catastrophically short of what is necessary. Failure, as we indicated Madam Speaker, is consistent across every level of education. The evidence of failure is not isolated and is systematic,” Crawford said.

He argued that the education system was failing in its responsibility to prepare students for economic participation and productivity.

“The duty of education [is] to transition our children off each floor and eventually across onto the bridge of productivity and economic participation. However, that failure is stark,” he said.

Crawford pointed to figures showing that the number of Jamaicans in the workforce without qualifications has risen sharply in recent years, moving from roughly 727,000 in 2020 to 887,000 in 2025.

“In just five years, approximately 160,000 more persons have entered the workforce without qualification. This is larger than some of our parish’s population,” he told Parliament.

He also highlighted the rise in young people categorised as NEET — not in education, employment or training — saying the figure had increased from around 108,000 in 2020 to more than 124,000 this year.

The Opposition spokesman reserved some of his strongest criticism for HEART/NSTA Trust, arguing that the institution was failing to adequately certify people entering the workforce.

“One would therefore be wondering if Heart Trust NTA is coming to the rescue. However, Madam Speaker, the simple answer to that is a categorical no… In 2024-2025, Heart NTA enrolled 137,442 persons. One would be surprised to note that the certification rate of those persons was only 39.3 per cent,” he added.

Crawford also challenged recent Government claims of improved CSEC mathematics performance, arguing that pass rates were being presented in a misleading way because fewer students were actually sitting the examinations.

He lashed out against what he described as major inequalities between schools, arguing that students attending better-resourced institutions had far greater access to technology, nutrition, teaching support and learning materials than children in struggling schools.

He took aim at the Government’s technology rollout in schools, noting that while thousands of laptops had been distributed, many schools either received none or only a handful of devices to share among hundreds of students. According to Crawford, this meant some children were receiving only minutes of daily access to technology despite the Government’s own targets for digital learning.

Crawford also argued that hunger remained a serious but often overlooked barrier to learning, citing research indicating that between 25 and 33 per cent of Jamaican students arrive at school hungry. He said the Government’s nutrition support programmes remained inadequate and criticised the level of funding allocated to school feeding initiatives.

The Opposition spokesman additionally warned that the migration of teachers was creating serious staffing shortages across the education system, particularly in mathematics and science. He noted that resignations among educators had risen dramatically over the last decade, with many teachers leaving Jamaica for better opportunities overseas.