Research paper on huge increase in education spend in 1970s

[Don1]

...and it has been downhill since then

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/CA00400042/00001/1j

[Willi]

Did we grow the Tertiary (share) at the expense of Basic and Primary?

[Don1]

Did we grow the Tertiary (share) at the expense of Basic and Primary?

all sectors experienced growth because the overall spend in the 1970s was increased but the tertiary sector seems to have grown faster than others and ended the decade with a much greater % of the education budget..... so in a way yes

I know secondary education grew very fast in the 1970s to include thousands previously left behind but quality of the new schools was substandard.... then successive regimes did little to improve the situation in terms of quality output

1960 - 1970 ...the % of secondary age students enrolled in school rose from 45% to only 46% (seems the regime then put very little emphasis on education)

1970 - 1979 secondary enrollment growth was from 46% to 57% .... a huge increase of junior sec and other so called non-traditional school enrollment

Primary enrollment was already high from the1950s through the 1970s

[Muadib]

1970 ??

But I thought Joshua revolution started in 1972 ?

BTW.. mi hear seh it takes cash to care...

[Don1]

I guess there was no cash available in the 1960s then

[Muadib]

poor logic..

[Don1]

i see...so what...there was cash in the 1960s with all that growth we're told about? Why then didn't more kids get schooled?

Perhaps there was little interest

Check

[Muadib]

Jamaica Education Dilemma was born out of reckless policy by Michael Manley and compounded by more reckless policy by PJ Patterson.

"It Takes Cash to Care"

Stop trying to be profound... I think this country has had enough of that..

Keep It Simple Stupid.. say no to Quixotic urgings..

[Don1]

Nope...post independence the JLP it appears neglected education especially at the secondary & tertiary levels....the data clearly shows that.

Enrollment at secondary level was flat at 45%-46% for that entire decade and tertiary enrollment was among the lowest in the Caribbean.

Manley vastly increased the education spend (education spend as a % of the GDP doubled in 3 years 1972-75) and brought more kids in the system at the secondary & tertiary levels....

Seaga cut back on education spending as a % of the economy and started the process of big debt accretion in his effort to reflate the economy...

....compounded by Patterson with the meltdown and massive debt.... a debt now massively increased 60% in just 3 years by this group.

Ah suh di ting set... the data is impervious to your propaganda

No doubt your attempt to spin will continue

[Muadib]

what is the point of doubling spend on education while destroying the economy.. ?

Manley winning in 1972 was actually the death knell long term for education spend..

eiddah yuh seeit or yuh blinded..

[Willi]

Better representation...

Agreed about the 1960s, given that when Manley declared Free eddikation early on in his first term, the legendary Edwin Allen walked across the aisle and shook his hand!

The 1980s saw a collapse in the bauxite industry and structural adjustment...every sector got hit...real austerity time. Tertiary education came to be seen as a cost sharing exercise, a point that was vehemently opposed by the students. Manley himself stood with the protestors and promised to roll back the fees, but when he regained power in 1989, he reneged and tried to explain the reality of our economic situation.

I was never a believer that teritary education was a great investment for us, given the situation prevailing at the time. Many if not most university grads were simply moving onto greener pastures, many without repaying student loans! Jamaica was simply subsidizing Babylon! I recall that even during Kingston droughts in the early 1980s, we in the Chem. labs were allowed to run water all day and INDIVIDUALLY, we were not forced to combine efforts in small groups to minimize water waste. That struck me as misaligned priorities. Another being the fact that many townies took boarding grants and bought Seiko Lasalle watches, etc, even though they lived at home!

Post 1989, education was simply no longer a priority and the PNP was simply resting on its 1970s laurels. Though a barely mitigated disaster in the 1970s, the PNP did at least 2 good things ... broadening educational opportunities and updating social legislation. There were other decent ideas too, but the management was lacking.

What we lacked at anytime was a broad based, consensus driven, long term educational strategy with clear definable goals in mind. We are paying for that now.

[Don1]

Can agree with that... especially

What we lacked at anytime was a broad based, consensus driven, long term educational strategy with clear definable goals in mind. We are paying for that now.

...Righteous... Social Contrak mi seh

Plus yuh rite bout the waste at the tertiary level.... I recall getting a boarding grant and not knowing what to do with most of it except party (I hate watches) ...while living a 10 min drive away from the UWI. There was zero means testing or any effort at underwriting benefits.

The data shows that in TT, B'dos & Guyana in the 1970s-1980s there was an explosion in tertiary spending... I guess at the time it was believed that was a way to get ahead of the development curve (It is but only if the lower levels are solid) ....and JA followed that trend

[Willi]

The lower levels must be given priority first. We must make the base solid first.

I personally did NOT take the boarding grant. I just could not stomach that breed of excess. I did not need it even as I was not rich...given the ridiculously low tuition at the time.