Ronald Thwaites | Inadequacies of education

“Education system reproducing economic and social injustice,” said Maziki Thame in her recent contribution in the Senate. Tragically, she is right. But nobody has noticed. Instead a tizzy about touching the symbol of King Charles’ enduring sovereignty over Jamaica's soul has captivated the news. 

The pre-teen children at my school come to class coarsened by inner-city community life and the incessant sleaze of social media – their main escape route. The girls are likely to have their bodies groped by some lout while the weaker boys will have their lunch money robbed by one or more bullies.  Complaining only makes things worse.

To mitigate this brutishness, a volunteer behaviorist had them fashion little ornaments from waste material- tokens to give for Mother’s Day. They were crude but beautiful. Each child showed pride in creating something special for someone special. The effort gave everyone a glimpse that the harshness of their circumstances could be relieved. Better could come.

The gift was not to be. Overnight two boys from a higher class came and systematically, not randomly, destroyed every one of these works of art, these gestures of the soul. It’s not the first time either.  The attractive but inexpensive garden painstakingly cultivated outside the block of classrooms, has been trashed more than once, feces deposited. Contempt splattered.  Reports of school and domestic violence multiply.

Anger, disappointment, tears came first from the young hopefuls. Despair from their teachers. After that sullen resignation. A so it set. Same way sometimes in the yard, or when the criminal boy dem or the masked police terrorize and kill; same so in Parliament plenty times. “Nuttin nah come outta it”. “No better no deh”.  

Neither the Education Code nor the criminal justice system have effective ways of dealing with the feel-up artists, the petty thieves or the delinquent students.  We are raising a generation who are morally naked. The progeny of the brutalized are still enslaved by believing either that freedom has no bounds or, like Stephen Miller of Trump fame, that force and power determine everything. 

“The strong do what they can: the weak do what they must.”

Suspend the National Standards Curriculum and concentrate on character formation, literacy and numeracy. Retrain teachers to function in these areas. The social and moral deficit is worse than even the literacy crisis. Stop deluding ourselves that left on its current path, the education system will self-correct and stop reproducing “economic and social injustice”.

Transformation, like prosperity, will soon be announced as an achievement while school violence, outrages like that described and weak outcomes, continue. The majority of the minority who pass external exams do so at the lowest levels. Onion rings and   bashment influencers deaden the reality of failure. 

REPAIRING INFRASTRUCTURE

Traversing the foothills of the Blue Mountains, travelers now realize that the most efficient road repairs are done by groups of youth who dig out ruts and crevices, fill them with cement and ask for contributors from passersby. Months ago, dangerous retaining wall containment had to be supervised and paid for by citizens after repeated pleas to the “revelant hartarity” were futile.  

It hurts to admit that, to my certain remembrance, roads were better maintained by the Public Works Department in pre-independence time. This is an embarrassing travesty.  One of the irritations of being a member of parliament was the trouble, wasted effort, frustration and loss of agency involved in getting timely road maintenance and repairs carried out in one’s constituency.  

Centralization of most public services is not working because it is disconnected from community and responsive primarily to some distant power. Even minsters are impotent.

PREDICTABLE FAILURE

This reinforces my point that, under existing systems of non-accountability and favoritism, state agencies will continue to achieve pitifully less than what is needed and paid for. The consummate irony of the NaRRA law will be that, with all safeguards slashed and power unchecked, the likely outcomes will be plenty ‘teefing’ and very limited development. We continue to colt our own game and preen as we draw pretty-pretty bad card!

 PLEA FOR THE WEST

This is a special plea for the cane farmers in the West. The premature closure of the crop, the wasted value of stand-over cane, is the latest and maybe the last nail in the coffin of Westmoreland and Hanover economies.  Apart from their fitful engagement with low-wage tourism, what else is there?  Ganja and scamming?

 The owners of the Frome factory cannot be expected to defend the national interest. How can we build back better if a major foundation of earnings in the most devastated areas is dismantled? We destroy while we talk of restoring.  And by the way, tell us what has changed regarding credit for agriculture especially with land titling making little headway other than in parts of St Elizabeth?

WE ARE NOT POOR

Jamaica is not short of development capital. Recently Sanya Goffe of the pensions industry and Steven Whittingham addressing the insurance sector, pointed out the huge accumulation of domestic savings which, with prudent but not constipated regulation, should fund long term infrastructure projects. Add to those resources, increased diaspora investment if properly solicited, and a rethinking of the contribution levels and doubling the subscribers to the National Insurance Scheme.  Big money. Our own money.

Think of the excitement and good purpose if there was lively public conversation about those prospects where people could see their secured savings contribute to their roads, schools and hospitals. 

MANAGED DECLINE

The worst thing about the debates in Parliament is the stubbornness of the government to listen only to themselves. Apart from the fact that this mentality foretells certain failure, it robs an already- sceptical and disengaged populace of an exciting opportunity of civic engagement, a sense of purpose which can spawn better behavior on the roads, in the taxis, in the schools, workplaces and construction sites.

Last, respect, the cry from the heart of every Jamaican, from the schoolchild whose story I told you at the beginning, to the MP who is denied the opportunity to speak in Gordon House, cannot be demanded or instilled by fear and repression. Respect has to be modeled and earned. Those who wield power but by temperament cannot earn respect should be relieved from doing more damage.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.