WalkerEducation a key election issue
DIRECTOR OF Elections, Danville Walker, is confident that the system he heads will stand up to the test tomorrow but while he attends to last-minute preparations, he makes it clear that some concerns transcend the elections.
Among them is the education system, Mr. Walker said, carefully stres-sing that he was not giving an opinion on education policies put forward by major political parties but making general remarks.
According to Mr. Walker, too many functionally illiterate young men are leaving schools. He said that Jamaica needs to see more young men remaining in and doing well at school.
"I am not comforted by the fact that certain Jamaican students come first in the CXC passes among the world... because the cream of the crop will always do well."
Statistics, he explains, often hide the truth, which included high schools where not one male student passed subjects such as mathematics.
"You always have geniuses but what are we going to do with a whole year of young men who can't read or write?" he asks.
Mr. Walker says that Jamaica needs schools that teach and train people and "until we are doing that, all of the crime problems are going to remain. Most of your investors who come here are not coming here to do construction, chop bush or cane. They are coming here with knowledge industries as people who speak well and who can be multi-functional."
He adds that persons need to speak English well and be multi-
lingual. Focus is needed.
"It has to be that you go into these institutions and you figure out what they need to make sure that students remain in school because they cannot go to school three days out of the week," he says
