Hotelier Christopher Issa has warned that the country needs to improve the education system as it cannot continue to have schools graduating students, many of whom are unable to read.

Issa, chief executive officer of S Hotels Jamaica, made sweeping criticisms of successive governments for what he deemed an inadequate approach to national development as he pointed to the literacy issues still affecting cohorts of students across the island while addressing Webster Memorial United Church’s 85th Anniversary Stewardship Awards Ceremony on Saturday in St Andrew at which former ministers and members were honoured for dedicated service to the church.

He argued that the country gained nothing when its children, who are meant to lead future generations, are illiterate.

“It is no good to our country to have a… class where 30 per cent of the students graduating Grade 6 cannot read. There are special programmes available to help these persons. We need to have them available, we need to have them funded, and we need to make sure that they reach the children who need them most so that they, too, can make the grade,” Issa argued.

Issa charged that Jamaicans have grown accustomed to accepting mediocrity from successive governments, despite electing leaders with the expectation that they will advance the country’s development.

“When our roads deteriorate, we learn to drive around the potholes. When our hospitals struggle, we praise the workers rather than focus on a system that gives them the resources needed… And when promises are not fulfilled, we make new promises. In limbo, you win by going lower. In the high jump, you win by raising the bar and finding strength, discipline, and determination to clear it,” he said.

The hotelier further asserted that a languid approach to national advancement is also being reflected in Jamaica’s schools.

“When our schools under-perform we celebrate isolated successes, instead of demanding excellence,” he said.

Expanding his point, Issa told the ceremony of an encounter he had with a policewoman in Montego Bay, St James, some years ago. She had flagged him down and asked for his documents in a traffic stop.

According to Issa, as he handed his motor vehicle documents to the cop she ignored them and instead told him she had been standing in the sun all day, and was very thirsty. He claimed that in exchange for his monetary contribution, she shared her life story.

Issa said what was revealed to him was the story of a woman who struggled in Jamaica’s educational system, and was punished by her mother because of her inability to read and write.

He said the woman told him of her mother’s drastic punishments to force improvement, but noted that her measures did not work.

“She said to me that when she was a student, her mother used to make her read to her, and if she didn’t read properly to her, she made her kneel on a grater. And she said, ‘Boy, sometimes it got really hot’,” he recounted.

Issa said the cop told that in a desperate last-ditch effort to evade punishment, she made up words and feigned fluency. To her amazement, her plan worked.

“The mother did not correct her, and she realised that her mother could not read. And so one day she asked her mother, ‘How is it that you are so hard on me and you can’t read?’ And the mother’s reply was, ‘Well, I didn’t want you to turn out like me’,” said Issa.

He argued that there are many other Jamaicans with similar stories, who want better for their children and the nation at large.

Issa urged the public to be more forthcoming and vocal about their expectations, to help Jamaica fulfil its potential.

“And so I realised that our people want their children to be doing better. They want them to live in a better Jamaica than the one they were growing up in, and they’re doing their best to help us. But we must help ourselves. We cannot just sit back in our armchairs, on our verandas, and cheer on Team Jamaica whenever it suits us. We are all members of Team Jamaica every day of life.

“We are representing our country here and abroad in everything we do in our daily lives, and we must ensure that we are always representing Team Jamaica to the highest standards. Let us all carry the flag of Jamaica as high as we can and show the world what Jamaica is truly capable of,” Issa said.