Ronald Thwaites | Getting in our own way

I’m gratified but bemused whenever Minister Dana Morris Dixon or Dr Adrian Stokes tells us of the successes in implementing the Patterson report on education transformation. Gratified because there is no more important cause for us to be attempting. Also, I trust their effort and sincerity.

Bemused because, if 47% of Patterson’s recommendations have been achieved, then there should be a commensurate improvement, over agreed timelines, in teaching, learning and student outcomes.

What else matters?

A third of the almost-teenagers we are seeing this year in Grade 7 do not appreciate why they are in school. Their self-esteem is very low. Several do not expect to live long or to achieve much. Their behaviour mirrors their emotional and spiritual state. Even when extra lessons are offered free, many are not motivated to come. The smartphone is a seductive distraction.

At one location, only eight of several hundred parents advised of the parent-teacher meeting attended.

A STRUGGLE

For the more promising non-readers, we are showing them pre-primer word and picture books to associate familiar things with letter sounds and words. Among other strategies, it is working.

We have begun speaking to them in Jamaican Creole because that is what they understand, using it as a gateway to comprehension and the use of Jamaican Standard English.

In one typical class of mostly non-readers, the normal curriculum prescribes 13 subjects. This one-size-fits-all policy is the ultimate self-defeating strategy around which the school’s whole establishment and timetable is ordered.

When is the Patterson transformation effort going to address this mistake? Before building the superstructure of multiple subjects, STEM and Robotics, make sure of the basics for the bottom half of the student population whose literacy, numeracy and character formation are compromised.

We are now testing all the students who clearly have learning challenges, courtesy of some local and international partners who understand our peril better than we do.

Of some 50 kids screened by professionals, so far, 80% are affected by both Attention Deficit Disorder and dyslexia. Apart from the handful of overburdened public testing facilities, where else is this being done? After the diagnosis, where are the facilities to apply the therapy?

DIFFERENT APPROACH

The social worker, distinct from the guidance counsellor, who the ministry has enabled us to hire, visits the homes of absentee and delinquent students. The private sector is providing the wherewithal for her to intervene when poor attendance is caused by the absence of lunch money, bus fare, period poverty, and the other obstacles of the curse of poverty. Every school principal should have that capacity.

So absenteeism has declined by more than 10 per cent and continues to fall. Porridge is a huge stimulant for effective school performance, even though many are still embarrassed to join the line and admit they are hungry.

If only the chronic absenteeism of teachers could be corrected. But ensuring teacher discipline where there is little or no accountability is an impossible task.

Similar conditions are found in at least a third of our high schools. They are not being dealt with adequately by present efforts at transformation. The statistics and graphics are unconvincing.

WORTHY CHALLENGE

Last week, Minister Morris Dixon challenged high-school government scholarship awardees to live lives of continued excellence, gratitude to nation and to God. She encouraged a demeanour of humility and a vocation of service rather than merely acquisitive selfishness.

While directed to a group of talented young people, the ethic of her message rings true for the entire nation. What if these values were to permeate the political culture of which she and I are a part! What if inculcation of ethical behaviour was the cornerstone, not the marginal add-on, to our education system.

Here’s my take. Jamaicans are a God-blessed people who get in our own way and so prevent our fulfilment. Our current economic and spiritual slough, the lurch away from vibrant constitutional democracy, cannot be relieved without the revival and cohesion of national spirit in contrast to the cynical, selfish, disengaged ethos of division. Check Lee Kuan Yew’s political philosophy.

Since the political culture will not allow itself to be reformed; the churches are waiting for a God who is already within and among us; and civil society is fickle, the schools, properly ideologised and effectively operated, remain the best hope for transformation. Check Prof Don Robotham’s prescription of education renewal for inclusive revival.

MORE GETTING IN THE WAY

How much money does government owe contractors and how aged are those payables? My information is that the figure runs into billions and late payment is the reason why many skilled professionals who depend on cash flow shy away from government contracts, leaving the field to foreigners with long pockets and a few locals who facilitate kickbacks. Who is checking?

BORROWING FROM OURSELVES

Last week, the Government announced more borrowings of Jamaican savings and profits to fund the Budget. When the interest rate offered is higher than mortgage rates available to home buyers, the result will be pressure on those rates and a diversion of development funds to the safety of government bonds. How does this help families, the bedrock of coherent society, to achieve stability?

The vast majority of unsettled, underachieving children whom we meet in our schools come from brittle or non-existent home situations. Macro-economic decisions have a knock-on effect on life on the gully bank.

FLEXI-WORK, SCHOOLCHILDREN AND MALE TEACHERS

How is flexi-work going to operate when most public servants have a child to deliver to school at set times every weekday?

What is the likelihood of female teachers acquiescing to male counterparts being paid extra on the basis of gender alone?

TRAVEL AND LIFE

Aren’t you bemused at the prohibition of “non-essential” travel by public officials? You mean that hasn’t been the standard all along?

Lastly, since we obviously believe that more killing will end killing, what is there to misunderstand about “Thou shalt not kill”?

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the retired principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.