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Jamaica faces a cross road in its education....which way will we turn?
In the face of an increasingly competitive and technological world...which conversely, also offers massive new opportunities if we leverage the appropriate technology....Will we keep the legacy neo-colonial system which features:
Highly stratified and badly skewed primary and secondary tiers with so called "traditional high schools" and private preparatory schools which are generally adequately resourced..... but cover maybe only 15% of the cohort in each tier.... leaving the so called "non-traditional" 85% in overcrowded, substandard excuses for institutions of learning? With an outdated, fossilized syllabus not suited for today's fast changing world.
All this ludicrous system does is reinforce the class divisions in society and ensure limitations on social mobility by those disadvantaged by the system.... the naive will point to the many exceptions who manage to overcome these structural dysfunctions and succeed... missing the point.
This myopic self satisfaction and fear of rocking the boat is to be expected from the ostriches.
Or will the society demand and embrace reform using widely available technological tools to jump a generation of educational development from the 1980s where we still are...to the 21st Century?
Tools like..
* Low cost internet connectivity through public and private networks...facilitating distance education
* Low cost computer infrastructure...fixed and mobile... meaning easily attainable universal network access
* Low cost (or even free to educational institutions) software packages enabling real world skill assimilation, team building & collaboration
* Building partnerships between high schools, universities, private sector firms, trade organizations and international organizations...around defined goals targeting national development
* Establishing and organizing primary, secondary and tertiary education around specialized issues important to national development goals as many countries and regions are doing.... Hawaii focuses on Shipbuilding, Taiwan and South Korea on mould making and product lifecycle technologies which support their manufacturing industries, Israel concentrates on industrial software, aeronautics and robotics
... What is Jamaica's focus...call centers? Sun, Sea & Sand? That stuff is necessary but will not get us to where we need to be... clearly we need to set the bar higher and move up the value chain
What is it that the nation is to aspire to in order to achieve the development everyone wants...but are clueless as to how to get?
Without vision...the people will continue to perish....and 20 years from now, on the current course... we will still be aspiring & perspiring to sell trinkets to tourists, work on cruise ships counting cows or taking customer service calls from frustrated Americans.... a recipe for persistent poverty
Time to wake up and live...or at least wake up and plan a sustainable future.... beginning with education reform.
Selah
In the face of an increasingly competitive and technological world...which conversely, also offers massive new opportunities if we leverage the appropriate technology....Will we keep the legacy neo-colonial system which features:
Highly stratified and badly skewed primary and secondary tiers with so called "traditional high schools" and private preparatory schools which are generally adequately resourced..... but cover maybe only 15% of the cohort in each tier.... leaving the so called "non-traditional" 85% in overcrowded, substandard excuses for institutions of learning? With an outdated, fossilized syllabus not suited for today's fast changing world.
All this ludicrous system does is reinforce the class divisions in society and ensure limitations on social mobility by those disadvantaged by the system.... the naive will point to the many exceptions who manage to overcome these structural dysfunctions and succeed... missing the point.
This myopic self satisfaction and fear of rocking the boat is to be expected from the ostriches.
Or will the society demand and embrace reform using widely available technological tools to jump a generation of educational development from the 1980s where we still are...to the 21st Century?
Tools like..
* Low cost internet connectivity through public and private networks...facilitating distance education
* Low cost computer infrastructure...fixed and mobile... meaning easily attainable universal network access
* Low cost (or even free to educational institutions) software packages enabling real world skill assimilation, team building & collaboration
* Building partnerships between high schools, universities, private sector firms, trade organizations and international organizations...around defined goals targeting national development
* Establishing and organizing primary, secondary and tertiary education around specialized issues important to national development goals as many countries and regions are doing.... Hawaii focuses on Shipbuilding, Taiwan and South Korea on mould making and product lifecycle technologies which support their manufacturing industries, Israel concentrates on industrial software, aeronautics and robotics
... What is Jamaica's focus...call centers? Sun, Sea & Sand? That stuff is necessary but will not get us to where we need to be... clearly we need to set the bar higher and move up the value chain
What is it that the nation is to aspire to in order to achieve the development everyone wants...but are clueless as to how to get?
Without vision...the people will continue to perish....and 20 years from now, on the current course... we will still be aspiring & perspiring to sell trinkets to tourists, work on cruise ships counting cows or taking customer service calls from frustrated Americans.... a recipe for persistent poverty
Time to wake up and live...or at least wake up and plan a sustainable future.... beginning with education reform.
Selah
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