Send the schools to church! ... F or moral character building, says Al Miller
Published: Sunday | January 18, 2009
From left, Dixon and Miller.
Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer
DIRECTOR OF the National Transformation Programme (NTP), Reverend Merrick 'Al' Miller, is calling on the Government to entrust the leadership of the nation's primary and basic schools to the church.
Speaking to The Sunday Gleaner on the initiatives to be undertaken by the NTP, Miller criticised the current education system for not making moral character development a priority, along with academics.
The NTP, 'A Fresh Start for Jamaica' initiative, is a moral, value-based programme seeking to coordinate the activities of the church, state, business and civil society to tackle problems in the society. The programme, though independent of the Government, operates out of the Office of the Prime Minister.
"All we are doing with our present education system is trying to push kids through to pass an exam and, hence, we are creating persons who are not able to relate and to deal with the issues of life," Miller states.
Character development
He believes the failure of schools to prioritise character development is the cause of "all the societal problems that we are facing today".
It is the church, he says, that deals predominantly with the issue of values, and so it should be entrusted with training the nation's children. "I feel education needs to be predominantly back in the hands of the church. I believe that the Government should seriously look at engaging the church, as it was in the beginning, where the church was the leader in education, because real education is not primarily about the dissemination of information.
"Real education is about the development of character and the development of character is about moral, spiritual principles and that is the base for successful living," Miller adds.
But, President of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, Doran Dixon, is not saying amen to the reverend's statement.
"I don't think it is a fair comment. Teachers have been doing character building - educators have always been doing that. There is always more that can be done, but I'm not sure that the 'more' that can be done is necessarily the exclusive purview of the church.
"There are various things in the curriculum, primary curriculum, secondary curriculum ... you have guidance counsellors, you have religious education, all of these things come together to form the whole, so I'm not sure what the reverend means," he says.
andrew.wildes@gleanerjm.com
Members of the wider church and school community have offered mixed views on Reverend Miller's call for the Government to entrust the leadership of the nation's schools to the church.
It couldn't be a blanket statement because there are several schools, like the one I head, that are owned by the church and so there is a focus not just on academics but on the spiritual man and the development of the total person. So, programmes at schools are geared to that. We have devotions everyday, where children are pointed to the way of the Lord; we have personal development programmes - I can't say in every school, but in many schools in Jamaica today, that is the case.
I guess I would have to hear more what he means ... certainly it is good to have the church oversee what is happening and so on, but - I'm not quite sure what he means. What I can certainly say is that it is not true that all that schools focus on is academics.
I'm still a little unclear as to what is meant by giving over the leadership of the schools to the church, but certainly I would support any move that would help to bring a heightened sense of moral leadership and moral awareness and involvement to the leadership of schools.
We can see a steady decline in attitude and values within the school community and if it is that by being given leadership, the church can help to restore that kind of situation, I would support it.
I am on record as supporting character education in schools - as a part of the curriculum. That has always been one of my mantras, but I don't believe that it is necessarily who the thing is entrusted to. The truth is that the church does own many educational institutions.
The Moravian church, for instance, has over 30 primary schools attached to it. We also have a college. So, from our perspective, it is not whether everything is in the church's control, but if the stakeholders - Government and the church - come to recognise that character education is an important part of the development of a child.
