From Mike: A Solid Discussion

[Historian]

Darn! I certainly don’t plan on making this a habit and I hope that the moderators as well as the readers of this forum don’t mind me doing this, but I’m going to take ReggaeMike’s outstanding post to a new thread!

Mike’s discussion certainly deserves more visibility than is afforded when buried deep within a thread (albeit an excellent discussion thread started by Don1) that has grown quite lengthy (40 replies; 190 views). The post below by ReggaeMike is a reply to a statement by Karl.

Hopefully, there will be incisive responses to this excellent discussion by ReggaeMike.

If academic achievement is normally good that it is taken for granted then why the hulabaloo over the relevance of exams and children failing to pass them? And why the declining literacy? Sure some people may be able to read basic sentences but in my family there are a number of educators and former educators and believe me I can’t tell how many times I’ve just gotten sad sighs when asking them how the students fare. Some of what they tell me (and this ranges from little children in prep school to new university students) is almost horrifying when it comes to the standard of English (and let’s get it straight, in an English speaking country with exams in English and students attempting to work in other English speaking countries, if your standard of English is so poor that you may not be properly understood then you will never achieve in any academic field outside of maybe maths and physics since all other fields require English as the medium of communication and not numbers).

If what you said was applied such that athletic achievement was the one which occurred often and academic achievement was the flash, then it might seem to mirror the experience presented to me by teachers and which I experienced myself when going to school. I can recall many classmates (and students when I helped out in some summer camps) who would look like they were being tortured to death in class but had grins wider than the Cheshire Cat's when on the field. If that isn't an indication of which one they prefer (and thus place in a higher priority) then we seriously need to rethink how human emotions are interpreted.

Actually not only is athletic achievement fairly commonplace but it is also treated like the prodigal son. I need go no further than do the comparison which has been in vogue for quite some time: Jamaica and Singapore.

Both tropical islands. Both small. Both former British colonies which became independent in the 1960s. Yet despite Singapore competing in 13 Olympics since (and including) 1948 they've only won a grand total of two medals (both silver). That's right. Two. One in 1960 and the other in 2008. Singapore has twice the population of Jamaica packed into an island the size of Dominica and has wealth beyond the wildest dreams of many Jamaicans (so much wealth in fact that no long ago they serious proposed and put up the money to rent an island from Indonesia for development purposes). Jamaica meanwhile has competed in 15 Olympics since and including 1948 and has won....55 medals! 13 gold! 25 silver! and 17 bronze! Not only that, Jamaica has competed in even the Winter Olympics (despite no winter sport tradition) and has only missed one Winter Olympics since competing in its first one in 1988. Singapore has never competed in the Winter Olympics. Despite all of this though, Jamaica officially feted its athletes with expensive, gala-style celebrations for the 2008 Olympics even though technically their performance was to be expected and was definitely no flash in the pan (since 1996 Jamaica has never gotten less than 5 medals at the Summer Olympics). Given Singapore's Olympic record they should have given the entire population the rest of the year off in celebration when their women got silver in table tennis in 2008 as they doubled their entire record haul in those games and managed to keep their all-silver record.

In contrast their academic based industries couldn't be more different. Singapore actually has a defence/military manufacturing industry (something which requires people who did well in math, physics, engineering, etc) and produces among other things howitzers (one of the Singaporean companies involved also produces commercial construction vehicles), rifles and one type of warship. Singapore has also built a biomedical research facility (called Biopolis) which is dedicated to biological research (with a major focus on genetics) and has companies (Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, etc) establishing facilities there (not just distribution networks like in Jamaica). In a country like Jamaica which has so much sun and can grow sugarcane and has tonnes of water offshore it is a shame and disgrace that solar and ethanol technology is practically non-existent (and we import huge amounts of fuel) while we suffer from a drought when desalination and distillation of water are among the most basic of scientific techniques (other countries have desalination plants, why don’t we?).

[Karl]

Excellent post pointing us towards increasing emphasis on methods (teaching) and for us not to be satisfied with both the methods and the results. ...but off point.

Don1's point was in Jamaica more emphasis was being placed on sports than was being placed on education (academics).

That I propose is not true. In my mind...as I have observed...in every measure that can be applied - number of persons involved (at every level), financial resources earmarked, number of persons who have attained world class status be it at home or abroad...results as sum totals that have 'attained', etc., etc. ...sports in not even close.

As to the various discussions in his home and elsewhere, the adage that "There is no child, that cannot learn and learn well"...brings us to "If the child has not learnt, the teacher has not taught!"

I would hazard a guess that there is not one of us on this board who do not wish for greater academic successes from and by our people. We must redouble efforts to find ways to unleash the innate ability of our children...indeed all our people to improve in the academics. ..but we do not have to belittle our people by promoting, what in my mind is the falsehood of claiming we put more emphasis on sports that the academics.

The very discussions raging throughout the society on ways to improve on delivery of knowledge and promote the inquisitive minds of our people suggests, that when compared to efforts on improving performances in the various sports, not only our minds but our hearts are in the right place.

There is and always has been an emphasis on improving subject knowledge of those who work to deliver 'education'. There is has always been emphasis on improving the environment in which formal learning occurs. There is has always been emphasis on exploring 'how best the child learns' and the shaping of methods to answer that question and fit the needs of the child.

Finally, it is not merely the exposure of the raw pain and concern for failure to fully satisfy the needs that shall get us where we want to be on academic excellence it is working at and promoting changes in attitudes of those who would deliver the path to greater percentage results - policy makers, those who train our teachers, those who create the physical environment in which the imparting of knowledge occur...forward planning to ensure 'full' employment and 'full' opportunities for advanced learning. The pupils/students are 'captive sponges'. FORWARD on those fronts.

...but claiming our people are of the belief that sports is more important than academics is a falsehood!

PS: Like ReggaeMike I am from a household of teachers. Members of the family have taught at primary, prep, secondary, college and universities.

They have worked within the Ministry of Education as External Assessors of teachers - Education Officers, head of schools, head of departments at teacher training colleges and more.

I also had my stints - short though they may have been as teacher at primary, secondary and teacher training college...and have been actively engaged in sports. Schoolboy participant at various levels and coach at football and T&F. I have lived both sides. ...and I am still learning of what occurs on both sides.

[Don1]

Excellent post pointing us towards increasing emphasis on methods (teaching) and for us not to be satisfied with both the methods and the results. ...but off point.

Don1's point was in Jamaica more emphasis was being placed on sports than was being placed on education (academics).

That I propose is not true. In my mind...as I have observed...in every measure that can be applied - number of persons involved (at every level), financial resources earmarked, number of persons who have attained world class status be it at home or abroad...results as sum totals that have 'attained', etc., etc. ...sports in not even close.

As to the various discussions in his home and elsewhere, the adage that "There is no child, that cannot learn and lean well"...brings us to "If the child has not learnt, the teacher has not taught!"

I would hazard a guess that there is not of us on this board who do not wish for greater academic successes from and by our people. We must redouble efforts to find ways to unleash the innate ability of our children...indeed all our people to improve in the academics. ..but we do not have to belittle our people by promoting, what in my mind is the falsehood of claiming we put more emphasis on sports that the academics.

The very discussions raging throughout the society on ways to improve on delivery of knowledge and promote the inquisitive minds of our people suggests, that when compared to efforts on improving performances in the various sports, not only our minds but our hearts are in the right place.

There is and always has been an emphasis on improving subject knowledge of those who work to deliver 'education'. There is has always been emphasis on improving the environment in which formal learning occurs. There is has always been emphasis on exploring 'how best the child learns' and the shaping of methods to answer that question and fit the needs of the child.

Finally, it is not merely the exposure of the raw pain and concern for failure to fully satisfy the needs that shall get us where we want to be on academic excellence it is working at and promoting changes in attitudes of those who would deliver the path to greater percentage results - policy makers, those who train our teachers, those who create the physical environment in which the imparting of knowledge occur...forward planning to ensure 'full' employment and 'full' opportunities for advanced learning. The pupils/students are 'captive sponges'. FORWARD on those fronts.

...but claiming our people are of the belief that sports is more important than academics is a falsehood!

PS: Like ReggaeMike I am from a household of teachers. Members of the family have taught at primary, prep, secondary, college and universities.

They have worked within the Ministry of Education as External Assessors of teachers - Education Officers, head of schools, head of departments at teacher training colleges and more.

I also had my stints - short though they may have been as teacher at primary, secondary and teacher training college...and have been actively engaged in sports. Schoolboy participant at various levels and coach at football and T&F. I have lived both sides. ...and I am still learning of what occurs on both sides.

Karl everything in life is relative....so no need to be literal in a calculus of total resources (money or even talk time) spent on education vs sports. That's not a rational approach to me.... that provides an excuse for our sorry education system and absolute LACK OF ADEQUATE ATTENTION TO EDUCATION...it's been consistently under-resourced from colonial times to the present....that is the problem.

I would love to see what you regard as examples of our world class achievers in education. Forget about those educated abroad.... the mere fact that people have to find excellence abroad is an indictment on Jamaica...much as we like to crow about them.

If Jamaica is as enarmored with education as you seem to believe (relative to what is REQUIRED to move the country forward) explain why we clearly have far more relative success in the sporting arena (relative to other countries with our resources)....and are so backward in education.

Explain that.

Could it be that with all our so called emphasis on education, according to your belief, ....our severe underachievement means that we don't have what it takes to succeed? Perhaps our true talents lie in sports...where we consistently overachieve?
Or maybe you don't believe we are backward in education?

In fact there is a causal relationship between poor education and great sports achievement. Our children see athletic success as a way out of poverty and towards a better education & better life.... since we have made it so difficult for them to succeed with a shytty education system.

Come up with a rational explanation for why in the 21st century Jamaica has maybe 40% rate of illiteracy/semi-literacy.... an explanation that doesn't include an almost criminal lack of attention to even the basics of primary education.

For all your talk...the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Dat pudden spwile lang time..... believing anything else is to live in a fantasy world.

[ReggaeMike]

That I propose is not true. In my mind...as I have observed...in every measure that can be applied - number of persons involved (at every level), financial resources earmarked, number of persons who have attained world class status be it at home or abroad...results as sum totals that have 'attained', etc., etc. ...sports in not even close.

Karl, that may be true when you look at the sum of those at home AND abroad, but that would only mask what occurs on the island itself.

A number of those Jamaicans abroad went there for educational purposes and so education was their driving force. Having gone abroad many have established families and their descendants are sometimes counted when it comes to our media trumpeting the academic achievement of "Jamaicans" abroad (even if said Jamaican is only eligible for Jamaican citizenship and doesn't actually have it, or has Jamaican citizenship but has never lived on the island in decades).

At home we have a serious problem with education when 26,000 children out of a cohort of 51,000 (according the education minister) either did not sit CXC-CSEC or got zero. And right throughout the region itself the value of sport versus academics is reflected in CXC: http://www.cxc.org/section.asp?Sec=4&SSec=15&Info=313

According to that press release the best overall performance in a CSEC subject by all regional candidates was.....Physical Education and Sport with 96% of entries receiving Grades I to III in 2009. Contrast that with Math (40% of entries awarded Grades I-III) and English Language (50%) and English Lit. (53%). Math and English are the basic tools of success and the region as a whole is having problems getting people to be able just to grasp these tools. Other subjects had better results but none nearly as good as PE. Chemistry, Biology and Physics all had candidates achieving results between 74 and 78%. Principles of Business got 80%.

I would hazard a guess that there is not of us on this board who do not wish for greater academic successes from and by our people. We must redouble efforts to find ways to unleash the innate ability of our children...indeed all our people to improve in the academics.

Totally agree.

..but we do not have to belittle our people by promoting, what in my mind is the falsehood of claiming we put more emphasis on sports that the academics.

It is not a belittlement to acknowledge what various statistics point to. Whether it be in general examination performances, Jamaica's level of academically derived industries and businesses or the performance in the Olympics and elsewhere the stats strongly point to sports being far more appreciated than academics. Unless we are going to go by the rubbish that one of the principals at Champs said to the international media and say that our sports achievement is almost purely down to some eugenics nonsense about how Jamaica was the breeding ground for strong, rebellious, athletic slaves.

There is and always has been an emphasis on improving subject knowledge of those who work to deliver 'education'.

Ah, I think I see where we might be misunderstanding each other. I don't wish to and have never implied that the educators are emphasizing sports over academics. It is the children themselves. The educators can move heaven and earth, but if the children do not show interest then nothing will happen with regards to their education. It comes down to the children themselves, their parents and their environment. When children live in noisy, uncaring environments and parents aren't really paying attention or are incapable of helping them, how will the child improve academically? If some parents are only focused on the child passing (and thus setting the bar rather low), how will the child attain the expected results (which are a "bare minimum")? If some parents emphasize sports even subconsciously by taking kids to all kinds of sporting events but never once picking up or buying a single science or business magazine for their child then what message is sent to the child?

...but claiming our people are of the belief that sports is more important than academics is a falsehood!

That's your view and I can respect that, but I've provided a number of hard facts which indicate otherwise. How do you explain the sporting and academic achievements of Jamaica compared to Singapore if not by the fact that sports holds more importance in our society than it does in Singapore and probably holds slightly more importance than academics overall?

[Time]

Rubbish - Jamaican academics trumps its sports!!!!!!!!!!!

Darn! I certainly don’t plan on making this a habit and I hope that the moderators as well as the readers of this forum don’t mind me doing this, but I’m going to take ReggaeMike’s outstanding post to a new thread!

Mike’s discussion certainly deserves more visibility than is afforded when buried deep within a thread (albeit an excellent discussion thread started by Don1) that has grown quite lengthy (40 replies; 190 views). The post below by ReggaeMike is a reply to a statement by Karl.

Hopefully, there will be incisive responses to this excellent discussion by ReggaeMike.

Sports is not the problem in Jamaica. I dare say that Jamaica has produced far more scientists that Olympians/World Champions and I have met more Jamaicans at executive leadership seminars than I have seen accepting medals at the olympics. The bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country while Jamaican at home and aboard who win a medal is counted as a Jamaican medal.

Now back to the island. Of all the instituions built before independence, Jamaica's school based sprinting industry is a doing well compared to other industries because it was immune from politics and is run by people who is serious about controlling violence when it rears its head at champs. It also has the advantage of not requiring any much investment. Holdwood coach said that is he basically operating without any resources but he in winning.

The same cannot be said about the Jamaican economy or the general community. The Jamaican politicians plundered the state and mismanaged crime to the extent where the safer option fo the Jamaican achievers is to flee overseas. In Sinapore,, 36% of the investment comes from overseas.

[Don1]

Sports is not the problem in Jamaica. I dare say that Jamaica has produced far more scientists that Olympians/World Champions and I have met more Jamaicans at executive leadership seminars than I have seen accepting medals at the olympics. The bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country while Jamaican at home and aboard who win a medal is counted as a Jamaican medal.

Now back to the island. Of all the instituions built before independence, Jamaica's school based sprinting industry is a doing well compared to other industries because it was immune from politics and is run by people who is serious about controlling violence when it rears its head at champs. It also has the advantage of not requiring any much investment. Holdwood coach said that is he basically operating without any resources but he in winning.

The same cannot be said about the Jamaican economy or the general community. The Jamaican politicians plundered the state and mismanaged crime to the extent where the safer option fo the Jamaican achievers is to flee overseas. In Sinapore,, 36% of the investment comes from overseas.

Another person who misunderstands the debate.... it's silly to compare medalists vs scholars... it's a question of relative emphasis as explained above.

No one is saying that sport is a "problem"..... it is rather the extent to which so many are FORCED to believe that sport is a SOLUTION.... because of the lack of focus on academic excellence. No one is saying even that less should be spent on sporting development...although nonsense like building huge stadia should stop immediately... we need good schools more than that. I see where Babsy Grange is mooting a new $300m stadium to replace National Stadium.

The "problem" is not with sports or music per se. The problem is that we as a people use our success in these areas to generate a fantasy ( a warped psychology) that we are a great nation...when all we are..is a nation of great entertainers and great individuals. This masks the fact that we can only be a great nation by being a well educated nation.... so we are self delusional... using sporting & musical achievement as a psychological crutch.

Nations achieve greatness in areas on which they put laser like focus & belief.... in Jamaica that is tourism, music, sports, tribalism & crime.

Unfortunately education is too low down the list to register.... especially as it is the potential solution to the country's main problems.

[Muadib]

The root of the problem has been the reign of power being left in the hands of the products of schools that have long withered on the vine in the area of Academic acumen (don't let schools challenge fool you).

The problem appears to be correcting itself as the new captains of industry emerging from 'good school' are slowly taking over. It took a while but the old guard as can be expected put up serious resistance.

Drivah luckily has realized the obvious and made the correct decision in certain KEY appointments.

The Ship has been placed in good hands.. lets hope we have not wallowed in the berth for too long...

[Mosiah]

you had to go and spoil what looked like a reasonable response.

[Don1]

you had to go and spoil what looked like a reasonable response.

an example of something we are definitely world class in....tribalism

[Muadib]

but mi juss observe certain moves and approve.. wheh wrang wid dat ?

ok.. The Driver..

better ?

[Mosiah]

yuh cyaan spell showfah?

[ReggaeMike]

Sports is not the problem in Jamaica. I dare say that Jamaica has produced far more scientists that Olympians/World Champions and I have met more Jamaicans at executive leadership seminars than I have seen accepting medals at the olympics. The bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country while Jamaican at home and aboard who win a medal is counted as a Jamaican medal.

Now back to the island. Of all the instituions built before independence, Jamaica's school based sprinting industry is a doing well compared to other industries because it was immune from politics and is run by people who is serious about controlling violence when it rears its head at champs. It also has the advantage of not requiring any much investment. Holdwood coach said that is he basically operating without any resources but he in winning.

The same cannot be said about the Jamaican economy or the general community. The Jamaican politicians plundered the state and mismanaged crime to the extent where the safer option fo the Jamaican achievers is to flee overseas. In Sinapore,, 36% of the investment comes from overseas.

As Don1 said, it is not about sports being a problem. I never once said it was. I simply pointed out that Karl's assertion that Jamaican society values academics over sports is not supported by any figures to found anywhere. Not in CXC, not in the Olympics and certainly not in the economy.

In any event I've long since said it isn't about there being a choice between academics and sports. It's all about the right balance. A country can excel in both academics and sports. Off the top of my head I can easily count the USA (lots of universities, research institutions, literary tradition, etc. but also with a heavy sports culture), the USSR (the same people who dominated ice hockey, figure skating, did well in football also brought you the geniuses who got Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry and who developed the theory of stealth aircraft over a decade before the US even flew one and all US stealth technology is derived from the original Soviet mathematical concept), Australia and now China.

It is true that there are Jamaican scientists, etc. But:

I dare say that Jamaica has produced far more scientists that Olympians/World Champions and I have met more Jamaicans at executive leadership seminars than I have seen accepting medals at the olympics.

Were these scientists produced by Jamaica or did they just happen to born within the territorial limits of Jamaica? Because there is a difference. If they were born in Jamaica and received the bulk or the most important part of their science training in say America or Britain then they are Jamaican-born scientists who are the products of American/Canadian/British society and science education. It would be comparing carrots and oranges since a lot of Jamaican athletes were not only born in Jamaica but a product of training by institutions in Jamaica and Jamaica's society.

Of these Jamaicans at leadership seminars, were the majority Jamaican-born, Jamaican-resident or just of Jamaican descent? That is one thing which our media barely every differentiates and it leads us to the conclusion of being a great nation as Don1 said when it is more a nation of great individuals.

The bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country while Jamaican at home and aboard who win a medal is counted as a Jamaican medal.

Well this supports what I've been saying (although only Jamaicans abroad who play for Jamaica and retain Jamaican citizenship and usually Jamaican residency have their medal counted as Jamaican, if they run or play for another country as some did for Britain then their achievement is noted but their medal is never considered Jamaican). If the bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country in academics, how can it be asserted that Jamaican society values academics as much as or more than sports? If it did, then those people would be at home and we would see people who were just as serious about controlling crime and lackadaisical attitudes in academic based businesses and industries as those who run the sporting industry. What does it say about Jamaican society when academic derived industries are so easily susceptible to crime and financial mismanagement, whilst for 40+ years the athletics industry (and the wider sporting industry in general) hasn't?

Plus it doesn't really take that much to invest in academics. Sure it does at the university level, but for any country to have a firm university-level academic culture it needs a firm foundation in academics from preparatory school and high school which Jamaica certainly does not have. And it really doesn't take much to invest in prep schools and high schools. We're talking about mass produced school books (with even many second-hand copies available), not limited-print university tomes that can cost upwards of J$5,000 per book. And basic science equipment, not a Large Hadron Collider (or the Doomsday machine as some would call it). Once you have prep schoolers and high schoolers with a firm grasp of academics then the demand for university level academics will increase and make it easier for funding and investment to be found for that level. A firm academic culture would entail businesses supporting scientific research at the university level as happens in the USA, Canada and Australia. And it doesn't even have to be research focused on atoms or malaria (although that would be good) - in Australia they have sports businesses who fund research at universities in order to get better sport products and help athletes become better athletes. So in a country with the right balance sports and academia would become synergetic instead of competitive (as happens here). So businesses and organizations would partially fund research into better dietary and training regimens, better equipment, etc all with the end result of getting a better, more valuable product and thus more profit downstream. Instead of pumping millions of dollars or even $1 billion directly into the football federation only once it has hired some fancy foreign coach, businesses and organizations in countries with the right balance would probably pump some of that money into universities to produce better players and pump some of that into various local leagues with the aim of putting into practice what the research has revealed and then putting some of that money into the football federation.

[Don1]

As Don1 said, it is not about sports being a problem. I never once said it was. I simply pointed out that Karl's assertion that Jamaican society values academics over sports is not supported by any figures to found anywhere. Not in CXC, not in the Olympics and certainly not in the economy.

In any event I've long since said it isn't about there being a choice between academics and sports. It's all about the right balance. A country can excel in both academics and sports. Off the top of my head I can easily count the USA (lots of universities, research institutions, literary tradition, etc. but also with a heavy sports culture), the USSR (the same people who dominated ice hockey, figure skating, did well in football also brought you the geniuses who got Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry and who developed the theory of stealth aircraft over a decade before the US even flew one and all US stealth technology is derived from the original Soviet mathematical concept), Australia and now China.

It is true that there are Jamaican scientists, etc. But:



Were these scientists produced by Jamaica or did they just happen to born within the territorial limits of Jamaica? Because there is a difference. If they were born in Jamaica and received the bulk or the most important part of their science training in say America or Britain then they are Jamaican-born scientists who are the products of American/Canadian/British society and science education. It would be comparing carrots and oranges since a lot of Jamaican athletes were not only born in Jamaica but a product of training by institutions in Jamaica and Jamaica's society.

Of these Jamaicans at leadership seminars, were the majority Jamaican-born, Jamaican-resident or just of Jamaican descent? That is one thing which our media barely every differentiates and it leads us to the conclusion of being a great nation as Don1 said when it is more a nation of great individuals.



Well this supports what I've been saying (although only Jamaicans abroad who play for Jamaica and retain Jamaican citizenship and usually Jamaican residency have their medal counted as Jamaican, if they run or play for another country as some did for Britain then their achievement is noted but their medal is never considered Jamaican). If the bulk of Jamaica's graduates are overseas working for another country in academics, how can it be asserted that Jamaican society values academics as much as or more than sports? If it did, then those people would be at home and we would see people who were just as serious about controlling crime and lackadaisical attitudes in academic based businesses and industries as those who run the sporting industry. What does it say about Jamaican society when academic derived industries are so easily susceptible to crime and financial mismanagement, whilst for 40+ years the athletics industry (and the wider sporting industry in general) hasn't?

Plus it doesn't really take that much to invest in academics. Sure it does at the university level, but for any country to have a firm university-level academic culture it needs a firm foundation in academics from preparatory school and high school which Jamaica certainly does not have. And it really doesn't take much to invest in prep schools and high schools. We're talking about mass produced school books (with even many second-hand copies available), not limited-print university tomes that can cost upwards of J$5,000 per book. And basic science equipment, not a Large Hadron Collider (or the Doomsday machine as some would call it). Once you have prep schoolers and high schoolers with a firm grasp of academics then the demand for university level academics will increase and make it easier for funding and investment to be found for that level. A firm academic culture would entail businesses supporting scientific research at the university level as happens in the USA, Canada and Australia. And it doesn't even have to be research focused on atoms or malaria (although that would be good) - in Australia they have sports businesses who fund research at universities in order to get better sport products and help athletes become better athletes. So in a country with the right balance sports and academia would become synergetic instead of competitive (as happens here). So businesses and organizations would partially fund research into better dietary and training regimens, better equipment, etc all with the end result of getting a better, more valuable product and thus more profit downstream. Instead of pumping millions of dollars or even $1 billion directly into the football federation only once it has hired some fancy foreign coach, businesses and organizations in countries with the right balance would probably pump some of that money into universities to produce better players and pump some of that into various local leagues with the aim of putting into practice what the research has revealed and then putting some of that money into the football federation.

The problem seems to be that mediocrity in academics is regarded as acceptable.

We are all to blame but the worst offenders are our politicians who have no interest in promoting the needed reform in education and the massive additional resources needed over a sustained period to make the changes required for Jamaica to enter the modern world.

Politicians are not interested in fundamental education reform because their control systems of divide & rule through tribalism DEPEND on a large ignorant population.

Unfortunately the electorate condones this idiocy by indulging the tribalists.

[Assasin]

I maybe the only one but this is no research but based on my community. We had one strong teacher who was headmaster for years at the all age school who ran behind us, employed a group of willing teachers trained and untrained but gave their heart including my mother and others. Many of these children came from home of parents who couldn't read well but valued education.

This community has produced so many people per capita with college degrees that I am wondering how many other districts in Ja have this. there are also many advange degrees and PHDs. What is most pleasing to me is to see some people once called 'dunce bat' with there degree and I am not talking about "buying'.

Yes education is Key but Oppurtunity have to go with education or many smart kids will go to waste. The only reason why many of these people get degree is because they moved to Kingston or overseas where they can acutally work and study part time or full time.

We also have our share of athletes, cricketers, and footballers who represented Jamaica but that is just a by product of their educational systems not any other way. As they are discovered in schools.

My point is educational oppurtunity is very important. While the early years are important, the following 3 years between 16-19 when most of the youths graduate is also paramount as it determine whether they think they can make it honestly or not. I now see where they raised the age of kids graduating from high school but I hope there will some substance in terms of trade and oppurtunities for these youngster. We have to bridge that gap or we are doomed.

Question any Singapore athlete every win a medal? you remember how the Indian nation celebrated when they had their first?

[HL]

heheheee