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Put more trained teachers in basic schools, says MP
BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
GOVERNMENT backbencher Mikael Phillips wants the Ministry of Education to accelerate the placement of trained teachers in basic schools.
"We need to get our schools up to the standard that when a child leaves an early childhood institution, he or she can read, write and comprehend the basic requirements of the grade one curriculum," Phillips, who represents North West Manchester, told the House of Representatives last Tuesday.
PHILLIPS... if we do not have an educated society, we will be going around in circles
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"Notwithstanding the achievements of our prime minister and the minister of finance in charting an economic path, if we do not have an educated society, we will perpetually be going around in circles and will be back at this point again in our near future," said the rookie member of Parliament and son of Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips as he made his contribution to the 2013/14 sectoral debate.
He suggested that education was one of the primary vehicles that can be used to grow the economy.
He pointed out that while the country was spending 17 per cent of its national budget on education, only three percent of that amount was going into early childhood and special education. He added that, nationally, Jamaica has been spending approximately $25 billion on remedial education within the school system, compared to the national spend of under $5 billion on early childhood education.
"Currently over 50 per cent of our students leaving our early childhood institutions are neither numerate or literate. We need to accelerate the placement of having more trained teachers in our basic schools," he added.
He said that the business of early childhood education was too important a sector to be ignored.
"I am certain that if we get it right with early childhood, we will see better literacy and numeracy results coming out of our schools," he argued.
Phillips said that while the country has seen positive results from the years of work to transform the education system, there is still a far way to go.
"The real transformation cannot come from the minister of education or the ministry, the teachers and principals alone, it must also come from us as parents, from our households and our communities," he stated.
"We have too many parents who only send their children to school because it is socially correct, not because they see it as a necessity... No country has ever evolved from a developing state to a first world country without having an educated people," he observed.
Phillips said that his North West Manchester constituency was doing its part, in partnership with the Northern Caribbean University, by hosting a series of empowerment seminars and a preventative and intervention programme for parents and youths to enhance their parenting skills and youth empowerment, as well as dispute resolution to reduce crime and violence within the communities.
He said that the positive results of these initiatives have led him to the conclusion that there was a need for more of that type of intervention, and suggested that the National Parenting Support Commission venture into communities and engage the parents and youth in a similar fashion.
"We need to get the business of education right. Education is the best investment we can make as parents, as a people and as a country. When we succeed in doing this, we will be moving in the right direction," he said.
BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
GOVERNMENT backbencher Mikael Phillips wants the Ministry of Education to accelerate the placement of trained teachers in basic schools.
"We need to get our schools up to the standard that when a child leaves an early childhood institution, he or she can read, write and comprehend the basic requirements of the grade one curriculum," Phillips, who represents North West Manchester, told the House of Representatives last Tuesday.
PHILLIPS... if we do not have an educated society, we will be going around in circles 1/1 "Notwithstanding the achievements of our prime minister and the minister of finance in charting an economic path, if we do not have an educated society, we will perpetually be going around in circles and will be back at this point again in our near future," said the rookie member of Parliament and son of Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips as he made his contribution to the 2013/14 sectoral debate.
He suggested that education was one of the primary vehicles that can be used to grow the economy.
He pointed out that while the country was spending 17 per cent of its national budget on education, only three percent of that amount was going into early childhood and special education. He added that, nationally, Jamaica has been spending approximately $25 billion on remedial education within the school system, compared to the national spend of under $5 billion on early childhood education.
"Currently over 50 per cent of our students leaving our early childhood institutions are neither numerate or literate. We need to accelerate the placement of having more trained teachers in our basic schools," he added.
He said that the business of early childhood education was too important a sector to be ignored.
"I am certain that if we get it right with early childhood, we will see better literacy and numeracy results coming out of our schools," he argued.
Phillips said that while the country has seen positive results from the years of work to transform the education system, there is still a far way to go.
"The real transformation cannot come from the minister of education or the ministry, the teachers and principals alone, it must also come from us as parents, from our households and our communities," he stated.
"We have too many parents who only send their children to school because it is socially correct, not because they see it as a necessity... No country has ever evolved from a developing state to a first world country without having an educated people," he observed.
Phillips said that his North West Manchester constituency was doing its part, in partnership with the Northern Caribbean University, by hosting a series of empowerment seminars and a preventative and intervention programme for parents and youths to enhance their parenting skills and youth empowerment, as well as dispute resolution to reduce crime and violence within the communities.
He said that the positive results of these initiatives have led him to the conclusion that there was a need for more of that type of intervention, and suggested that the National Parenting Support Commission venture into communities and engage the parents and youth in a similar fashion.
"We need to get the business of education right. Education is the best investment we can make as parents, as a people and as a country. When we succeed in doing this, we will be moving in the right direction," he said.
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