Editorial | Election, debates and AI

As this newspaper is wont to point out, the fiscal discipline that Jamaican administrations have displayed for nearly a decade and half helped to push debt below 70 per cent of GDP, and otherwise stabilised the macroeconomy. These gains, of themselves, aren’t sufficient to free the island from its low-growth loops.

There is, as we pointed out in these columns a week ago, an increasingly urgent need for bold, integrated industrial policies, as well as the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), to break those loops.

Hopefully, these issues (including strategies for sustaining the downward trajectory of the debt, reducing high energy and logistics costs, locking in the downward trend of crime, reforming an underperforming education system, strengthening fragile institutions, increasing exports, and improving insufficient engagement with the diaspora) will be central in the remainder of the campaign, including in the formal debates between the parties.

The parties, Andrew Holness’ Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Mark Golding’s People’s National Party (PNP), have already addressed some social issues in a televised debate organised by the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC). They are to next grapple with economic matters, followed by a final debate, broad debate outlining their visions for Jamaica, between Dr Holness and Mr Golding.

The JDC is to be commended for organising the debates, especially given the loss of its historic funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

PIVOTAL

This election is pivotal. In a turbulent geopolitical environment and rapid advances in digital technologies, governments have little margins for error. The policies they implement now will have consequences for at least a generation.

In that regard, the manifestos of the parties, along with the vision to be articulated by the leaders, should serve as actionable plans rather than political gestures. Instead of the usual hand waving about the general need for the development of human capital, voters need transparent, practical commitments on AI, education, and training that can disrupt the cycles holding Jamaica back.

Education for the AI era calls for us to integrate data literacy, coding, and AI-enhanced problem-solving across secondary schools to develop the skills needed for meaningful transformation.

Jamaica’s education community is now digesting another stark reality check: performance in the 2025 CXC examinations, while showing marginal improvements, still underscores deep systemic deficiencies.

At the CSEC level, 44 per cent of students earned passing grades (Grades I–III) in Mathematics, up from 39 per cent in 2024, but still far from 2019’s 54 per cent. Eighty-five per cent passed English A, an improvement from 76 per cent in 2024, and now above the regional average of 80 per cent.

Shockingly, only 19.2 per cent of students passed five or more subjects including Math and English.

Meanwhile, CAPE results remained comparatively strong: an average pass rate of 91.2 per cent across Units One and Two. These numbers portray a deeply layered challenge – literacy is rebounding, but numeracy remains weak, and few students are achieving the minimum benchmark for academic and career success.

NOT ISOLATED

These educational shortfalls are not isolated. They feed straight into Jamaica’s low-growth loops: unskilled labour, limited STEM prowess, brain drain, poor business competitiveness, and underwhelming innovation.

Bringing AI and education together is not just a trend, it’s a strategic pathway to breaking cycles.

AI-ready Jamaica requires serious curriculum reforms, teacher reskilling, regional AI hubs, and partnerships with universities and diaspora technologists to cultivate a national skills pipeline aligned with job market needs.

AI in education calls for the utilisation of adaptive learning platforms, AI-driven diagnostics, and digital classrooms to raise education quality without overwhelming budgets.

Beyond education, it is vital that the country moves with speed to what can be seen as digital governance. The political parties need to be clear on strategies to use AI for streamlining permitting, curbing fraud, improving tax collection, and building a digital infrastructure that inspires trust and investment.

Both parties have, by their action and pronouncements, endorsed industrial policy as a tool. To give greater meaning to this approach, voters need to hear about the policies and resources being committed towards AI-driven tourism, smart agriculture, fintech, creative industries, and micro-export platforms, supported by grants, blended finance, and diaspora innovation bonds.

SOLID PLANS

Ethics and sound regulation are critical in the AI era. The parties must show solid plans to make data protection, fairness, privacy, and human-centred AI core elements of every government technological initiative going forward.

Manifestos missing these forward-thinking, AI-enabled solutions are incomplete. Voters should demand more substance.

The debates, therefore, must emphasise policy over political performance. With respect to employing the available technologies, the leaders must articulate with clarity how do they propose to:

• use them to modernise education with AI;

• lower crime-related business costs; and

• reform the energy sector using renewables and smart systems.

There have been lots of diagnoses of Jamaica’s economic challenges, and the upcoming election presents an opportunity for meaningful change. By placing AI and education at the centre of policy and debate, Jamaica can chart a new path forward. Manifestos and debates must deliver actionable solutions, not just rhetoric, for the nation’s survival and growth.