A so it set since the Negro Education Grant 1834
A SO it set, since the Negro Education Grant of 1834 prescribed Jamaica’s education process as: “A provision for regulating the condition of the Negroes as may combine their welfare with the interests of the proprietors”, and which interest was to carry on the production of sugar.
A so it set, that by the time of Jamaica’s political independence in 1962, 67 per cent of Jamaicans could not read nor write.
A so it set, that the Government introduced a popular Adult Literacy Programme named JAMAL.
A so it set, that it was only in the mid-1970s that Government provided a primary-school space for every primary-age Jamaican child.
A so it set, that by the 1980s, Jamaica experienced each year, 50,000 11-year-old children seeking to fill only 14,000 secondaryschool spaces.
SCARRING SELF-CONFIDENCE
A so it set, that is why we established the Common Entrance Placement Examination, placing the highest scoring 14,000 and telling the rest that they had ‘failed’ the Common Entrance Examination, many a child’s self-confidence scarred for life, but a so it set.
A so it set, that in this 21st century, when Government has provided a full secondary-school space for every secondary-schoolage Jamaican child, we still perpetuate the ‘apartheid’, more desirable ‘traditional high school’, less-desirable ‘secondary school’ segregation system, which only produces 30 per cent of the grade11 (fifth-form) cohort graduating with the five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subject passes, including English language and mathematics, deemed equivalent internationally to a high-school diploma.
A so it set, that years ago there was the introduction of a diagnostic assessment process for 11-year-old primary-school leavers entering secondary education, called the Grade Six Achievement Test, which was an assessment intended to provide the principal of the receiving secondary school, a learning/achievement profile of each incoming student, enabling the informed prescription of the appropriate educational treatment for each child appropriate to their educational needs. However, we termed this diagnostic assessment a test, and focused it entirely on the achievement scores earned to determine each child’s school placement prospects within the apartheid secondary school system that continues to produce only 30 per cent acceptable output, because a so it set.
BILLIONS TO CORRECT
A so it set, that in spite of recently introducing yet another diagnostic process for 11-yearold primary-school leavers, and expressly calling the process the Primary Exit Profile, we still refer to this “snapshot” assessment process as an exam, still to be used as the basis to determine children’s placement within the apartheid secondary-school system that we stubbornly maintain.
A so it set, that is why we continue to spend billions of dollars on the educational remediation and training of thousands of youngster who recently completed 11 years of publicly funded primary and secondary education, instead of spending those billions of dollars to truly transform the education system.
A so it set, that is why in our Jamaican workforce, only 30 per cent of our workers hold at least a high-school diploma (five CSEC subjects), while in the workforces of our major trading partners, over 90 per cent of their workers hold at least a high-school diploma. Their ‘high-quality/high-skill’ workforces attract job-creating investments that produce good-paying jobs that require workers with at least a secondary education and certification, already trained or trainable; the quality workforce that Jamaica does not have, because a so it set.
Why can’t we, as a people, resolve to ‘UNSET’ this 1834 dysfunction, complete the longdelayed transformation of our education system‘RESET’to ensure that each Jamaican child is effectively and appropriately educated, empowered and enabled to create value so as to be the embodiment of value, contributing to their peaceful and prosperous Jamaican society and economy?