THE PRIVATE Sector Organisation of Jamaica's (PSOJ) support for the reform of Jamaica's education system is a step in the right direction. Having identified this reform as a priority of the Partnership for Progress programme, which is to form the basis of a social contract between the private sector, the unions and the Government, the organisation has moved into the practical area of helping in the implementation.
Full details of the PSOJ's recommendations are not yet public but the philosophic basis of its approach is transparency and accountability in the operation of the Ministry of Education. Without reorganisation to ensure this, there will be a continuation of 'buck passing' in the system and inertia will win the day. This must not be allowed to happen for we strongly believe that unless a people are able to access a sound basic education democracy cannot work.
Another positive recommendation of the PSOJ is that, in order to ensure teaching excellence throughout the system, teachers' remuneration must be linked to performance not negatively as a sanction, but positively to encourage career advancement through incentives.
In many ways the education reforms put forward by the PSOJ reflect the emphasis placed on the sector by this newspaper as we have sought to foster national debate on the issues involved. We support the PSOJ's call for teachers to be licensed and for school attendance to be compulsory from age three to 13. The business leaders working on the Partnership for Progress plan, many of them graduates of the University of the West Indies, have brought their own logic to the analysis of the education system and concluded that overall priority needs to be shifted from tertiary to early childhood education.
In this connection, legislation is shortly to be put before Parliament giving to the Early Childhood Commission its mandate for reforming this vital link in the education chain. It is incumbent on all parliamentarians and, most particularly, the Opposition to scrutinise the legislation carefully. In particular, there should be focus on the accompanying regulations to ensure that a proper legal framework exists for action and that specific targets and time lines are set. The next step is to see that they are implemented and not be shelved as often happens with various proposals and recommendations in this country.
The PSOJ has made a major contribution to the education debate. It is up to Government, the media and an informed public to keep the momentum going.
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