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The education debate ...Square pegs in round holes
published: Sunday | September 30, 2007
Valerie Dixon, Contributor
Students view posters on display at the Cross Keys Post Office in Manchester in this 2005 file photo. [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Jamaica[/color][/color] needs a system that pays highly trained professional teachers at the same rate that a teacher, doctor, [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]lawyer[/color][/color] or highly trained professional could command in any part of the First World.
Many persons writing and giving commentary about the state of our [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]educational[/color][/color] system and, to a lesser extent, the state of the public sector, are either too young to know, or were not able to understand the politics of the day that 30 years later have placed us in today's precarious and sorry situation.
A young person leaving school in 1961 had little problem [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]finding [COLOR=orange! important]a [/color][COLOR=orange! important]job[/color][/color][/color] if he or she chose not to study at the tertiary level.
There were so many foreign investors operating businesses in Jamaica at this time that young people were guaranteed jobs that could almost take them into [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]retirement[/color][/color].
Even though many of these jobs were menial by our middle-class yardstick of today, people managed very well because the cost of living was so low, relatively speaking.
Today, people are getting a higher minimum wage, but it cannot buy what 21 shillings (now about $42) or less for wages could buy. People could also save out of these 'menial' wages; as a man didn't consider owning a house until he was in his 40s going on 50.
So, young people hired by the bauxite companies (although they paid better wages) are now either retired or are about to retire. If the bauxite companies had left Jamaica, this could not be happening. Many were employed as young school leavers without tertiary education.
Professionals, technocrats
It, therefore, meant that the students who went to teachers' colleges, the College of Arts, Science and Technology (now University of Technology) and the University of the West Indies prepared themselves academically to become our professionals and technocrats.
The matriculation standard for these institutions was very high and, as a result, these professionals, such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and others, were considered to be of a high calibre.
However, by the mid-1970s all standards fell. Jamaica's 'industrial revolution' was spearheaded by Robert Lightbourne, who was the Minister of Trade and Industry during the 1960s leading up to 1972.
However, by 1968, Jamaica got bitten by the 'ethnic bug' that was sweeping across the United States and, with a change of government in 1972, production and development gave way to ideology and we have not recovered from the ill-effects of this 'bite'.
Many persons, who are of a certain political persuasion, do not like to talk about this or admit that such a thing really happened. But truth, like beauty, just is.
So, when the foreign investments left our shores, many business establishments and factories closed their doors. This created a raft of school leavers who could not find jobs. This was an embarrassment to the Government of the day and a solution had to be found real fast.
Lowering standards
At about this same time, as if by coincidence, many teachers, teachers' colleges lecturers and many other professionals also left the shores of Jamaica. A vacuum was created that had to be filled.
Many of the jobless school leavers were encouraged to enter into the once noble teaching profession. Many of these school leavers had no desire to teach or enter tertiary institutions, and many were not qualified to meet the high matriculation standards. In my opinion, this was the beginning of our present-day dilemma.
Standards had to be lowered to accommodate these school leavers who could find nothing to do, so many of them found themselves as being like square pegs in round holes. The noble profession of teaching now became a mere 'job', rather than a vocation or a career path that one chose with zeal and passion.
This solution placed many persons who felt that teaching was their calling or purpose in life in a most precarious position. We chose to enter the teaching profession in the same way that a person chooses to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
Unfortunately, we graduated from tertiary institutions at a time when teaching began to lose its lustre, as many who would soon graduate after us would only be teaching because they could not find other jobs. The qualities one hoped to find in those who would be moulding young minds were sadly lacking in many of these new graduates from our teacher training colleges.
From as far back as the mid to end of the 1970s, there were teachers with whom I worked who, in my opinion, should never have been standing in front of students.
Many had, and still have, a poor command of the English language. Many could hardly wait for the lunchtime bell to ring so that they could ply their trade as taxi drivers or open the trunks of their cars which were used as clothes boutiques and haberdasheries.
These people were not true teachers; they were square pegs in round holes. Clubs and other after-school extra-curricular activities, that in my school days were compulsory, now began to fall by the wayside.
The 25 per cent of teachers in any school, who wanted to teach crafts, culture, dance and other performing arts - that they would proudly enter in the festival competitions - became discouraged as the student population was too large in many instances for any meaningful extra-curricular activity to take place.
It is in these extra-curricular activities that many of us mature Jamaicans learnt our hobbies. Many entrepreneurs today have turned these hobbies into thriving businesses that generate employment.
Much change
Family life in Jamaica now means something completely different and it is our teachers who are some of the examples of this moral decay. It is not unheard of or unusual for some of our male teachers to be smoking ganja with their students.
So much has changed in 30 years and the change has not been for the better. Many who are parents today were taught by some of these 'square pegs'. A lot of people believe that I am not a very bright person because I have been a teacher for so long and when I 'trot out my many qualifications', they look at me most suspiciously.
These days I am most flattered when younger people say that I am difficult to work with. That's because I simply refuse to lower my standards and come down to their level of mediocrity.
Payment as professionals
A British adage says "measure twice and cut once". Our Jamaican adage says "cho, dat can live wid". A lot of our present-day graduates have become professional 'kabba- kabbas', and I say it with no apology.
What is needed, in my opinion, in Jamaica is not 'performance pay', but a system that pays highly trained professional teachers at the same rate that a teacher, doctor, lawyer or highly trained professional could command in any part of the First World.
By so doing, persons who have a passion and a love for teaching would want to stay in Jamaica and thereby 'crowd-out' those who can't find anything else to do and wind up in our institutions of learning not as true teachers, but as square pegs in round holes. Valerie Dixon is a Manchester-based educator who can be reached at valeriecdixon@hotmail.com.
published: Sunday | September 30, 2007
Valerie Dixon, Contributor
Students view posters on display at the Cross Keys Post Office in Manchester in this 2005 file photo. [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Jamaica[/color][/color] needs a system that pays highly trained professional teachers at the same rate that a teacher, doctor, [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]lawyer[/color][/color] or highly trained professional could command in any part of the First World.
Many persons writing and giving commentary about the state of our [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]educational[/color][/color] system and, to a lesser extent, the state of the public sector, are either too young to know, or were not able to understand the politics of the day that 30 years later have placed us in today's precarious and sorry situation.
A young person leaving school in 1961 had little problem [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]finding [COLOR=orange! important]a [/color][COLOR=orange! important]job[/color][/color][/color] if he or she chose not to study at the tertiary level.
There were so many foreign investors operating businesses in Jamaica at this time that young people were guaranteed jobs that could almost take them into [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]retirement[/color][/color].
Even though many of these jobs were menial by our middle-class yardstick of today, people managed very well because the cost of living was so low, relatively speaking.
Today, people are getting a higher minimum wage, but it cannot buy what 21 shillings (now about $42) or less for wages could buy. People could also save out of these 'menial' wages; as a man didn't consider owning a house until he was in his 40s going on 50.
So, young people hired by the bauxite companies (although they paid better wages) are now either retired or are about to retire. If the bauxite companies had left Jamaica, this could not be happening. Many were employed as young school leavers without tertiary education.
Professionals, technocrats
It, therefore, meant that the students who went to teachers' colleges, the College of Arts, Science and Technology (now University of Technology) and the University of the West Indies prepared themselves academically to become our professionals and technocrats.
The matriculation standard for these institutions was very high and, as a result, these professionals, such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and others, were considered to be of a high calibre.
However, by the mid-1970s all standards fell. Jamaica's 'industrial revolution' was spearheaded by Robert Lightbourne, who was the Minister of Trade and Industry during the 1960s leading up to 1972.
However, by 1968, Jamaica got bitten by the 'ethnic bug' that was sweeping across the United States and, with a change of government in 1972, production and development gave way to ideology and we have not recovered from the ill-effects of this 'bite'.
Many persons, who are of a certain political persuasion, do not like to talk about this or admit that such a thing really happened. But truth, like beauty, just is.
So, when the foreign investments left our shores, many business establishments and factories closed their doors. This created a raft of school leavers who could not find jobs. This was an embarrassment to the Government of the day and a solution had to be found real fast.
Lowering standards
At about this same time, as if by coincidence, many teachers, teachers' colleges lecturers and many other professionals also left the shores of Jamaica. A vacuum was created that had to be filled.
Many of the jobless school leavers were encouraged to enter into the once noble teaching profession. Many of these school leavers had no desire to teach or enter tertiary institutions, and many were not qualified to meet the high matriculation standards. In my opinion, this was the beginning of our present-day dilemma.
Standards had to be lowered to accommodate these school leavers who could find nothing to do, so many of them found themselves as being like square pegs in round holes. The noble profession of teaching now became a mere 'job', rather than a vocation or a career path that one chose with zeal and passion.
This solution placed many persons who felt that teaching was their calling or purpose in life in a most precarious position. We chose to enter the teaching profession in the same way that a person chooses to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
Unfortunately, we graduated from tertiary institutions at a time when teaching began to lose its lustre, as many who would soon graduate after us would only be teaching because they could not find other jobs. The qualities one hoped to find in those who would be moulding young minds were sadly lacking in many of these new graduates from our teacher training colleges.
From as far back as the mid to end of the 1970s, there were teachers with whom I worked who, in my opinion, should never have been standing in front of students.
Many had, and still have, a poor command of the English language. Many could hardly wait for the lunchtime bell to ring so that they could ply their trade as taxi drivers or open the trunks of their cars which were used as clothes boutiques and haberdasheries.
These people were not true teachers; they were square pegs in round holes. Clubs and other after-school extra-curricular activities, that in my school days were compulsory, now began to fall by the wayside.
The 25 per cent of teachers in any school, who wanted to teach crafts, culture, dance and other performing arts - that they would proudly enter in the festival competitions - became discouraged as the student population was too large in many instances for any meaningful extra-curricular activity to take place.
It is in these extra-curricular activities that many of us mature Jamaicans learnt our hobbies. Many entrepreneurs today have turned these hobbies into thriving businesses that generate employment.
Much change
Family life in Jamaica now means something completely different and it is our teachers who are some of the examples of this moral decay. It is not unheard of or unusual for some of our male teachers to be smoking ganja with their students.
So much has changed in 30 years and the change has not been for the better. Many who are parents today were taught by some of these 'square pegs'. A lot of people believe that I am not a very bright person because I have been a teacher for so long and when I 'trot out my many qualifications', they look at me most suspiciously.
These days I am most flattered when younger people say that I am difficult to work with. That's because I simply refuse to lower my standards and come down to their level of mediocrity.
Payment as professionals
A British adage says "measure twice and cut once". Our Jamaican adage says "cho, dat can live wid". A lot of our present-day graduates have become professional 'kabba- kabbas', and I say it with no apology.
What is needed, in my opinion, in Jamaica is not 'performance pay', but a system that pays highly trained professional teachers at the same rate that a teacher, doctor, lawyer or highly trained professional could command in any part of the First World.
By so doing, persons who have a passion and a love for teaching would want to stay in Jamaica and thereby 'crowd-out' those who can't find anything else to do and wind up in our institutions of learning not as true teachers, but as square pegs in round holes. Valerie Dixon is a Manchester-based educator who can be reached at valeriecdixon@hotmail.com.
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