Accelerate education for export
Published:Sunday | July 16, 2017 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I am sincerely appreciative to Jaevion Nelson for attempting to 'disturb im neighbour' with his article in the The Gleaner's Saturday, July 15 edition.
The fact of the matter is that for many years, our education system has been graduating a grade-11 cohort, 30 per cent of which leave school with ZERO passes at CSEC, the regionally accepted certificate of minimum educational achievement at the secondary level. Additionally, even among our 'elite' traditional high schools, more than 50 per cent of the same cohort consistently fail to attain five passes, including maths and English, the standard of minimum achievement established by the Rae Davis-led 2004 Education Reform Task Force.
Perhaps a sensible approach is to adopt an official policy of 'education for export', a situation which has been the de facto status quo, even with the small number of qualified students we manage to graduate. Countries as disparate as the Netherlands and India have for many decades implemented similar policies.
We might then enjoy, thanks hopefully to deliberative public policy, the twin benefits of significantly increased inflows of remittances, as well as a significant reduction in the frightening rate of violent crime.
PAUL JENNINGS