Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Claude Packer is awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander class) by Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall at the National Honours and Awards ceremony at the National Indoor Sports Centre yesterday. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

SHORTLY AFTER earning a doctorate in mathematics from Cornell University in 1978, Claude Packer was caught between staying in the United States and returning to Jamaica to contribute to his country's education sector.

At 33 years old, Packer had come a long way from rustic St Thomas. Weighing such options was quite an achievement for someone who never attended a traditional Jamaican high school, and struggled until he was 16 years old to pass a mathematics test.

For his 42 years of service to education, particularly mathematics, Packer, 64, was yesterday awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander class) by the Jamaican Government.

"I've spent a lifetime trying to give back what I received. I'm delighted about it, quite humbled," said Packer, who has been principal at Mico University College since 1995.

He joined the institution's staff in 1972, staying there for 14 years. After teaching at the University of the West Indies and studying in the United States, in 1995, he went back to Mico, the Caribbean's oldest teachers' college at 175 years old.

Upgrading mico

Packer says the school was prepared for significant change when he returned.

"At the time, we were still issuing diplomas, but diplomas no longer had any currency in the world. My vision was to change Mico into a degree-granting university," Packer said.

The school was granted university status in 2006 as part of Govern-ment's plan to have every teacher in Jamaica qualified with a degree by 2012.

No early stimulation

Although Packer supports teachers being fully qualified, he believes Jamaica's current education curriculum is crammed and prevents early stimulation.

"I don't believe in this exam thing too much because it can stifle creativity, and that's the problem I have with the GSAT and CXC," he said. "It's too much for a child to absorb." Packer continued: "Lots of our most creative people did not go beyond high school, yet they could read, they could communicate, because they had good education," Packer added. "We have to go back and make education democratic, we have to level the playing field."

Born in the sugar-rich town of Seaforth, St Thomas, he is the second son of a single father, a baker who had worked in Spanish-speaking Honduras.

In his early teens, Packer moved to Clarendon, where he lived with an aunt. He considers his years in that parish as one of the turning points in his life. It was there that he said he developed a passion for maths during evening visits to Vere Technical High School.

At 19, he got his first teaching assignment, at Trench Town Comprehensive High School. The next 20 years would see Packer either teaching or studying at the UWI, Central Connecticut State University or Cornell.

Pay-for-result system

Packer is wary of the challenges facing local education, such as the perennial cry from teachers about inadequate salary and indisciplined students. He supports a performance pay system for teachers and believes increased male presence could turn around delinquency in the classroom.

"Part of the problem why the boys are so disruptive is that the father figures are not at home. Women are raising children alone," he said.

"In the schools, you don't want a repetition where women are always the principal and senior teachers, because many times it's only a man who can talk to a boy in a man's way."

Packer, who has written several papers on education and mathematics, has been married to Lisa for 34 years. They have three children.

howard.campbell@gleanerjm.com