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I usually can tell on here who is from the urban areas. Or who was raised in the West. Usually from their attitude on education in Jamaica. I came out of the era that Epsuet describes. In fact 77 was a good year. In 1975 the goverment increased the intake into high schools by 30%... I recall the hoopla well. I recall that I was told by a black Spanish teacher from Guyana ( I mention his colur to contrast with another individual in this bad narative) what a triuph the education policy was.... I told him that he was wrong.. That out of a cohort of about 100 from my all age school 7 had passed the CEE.. And that there were three local schools a totaal of 1 passed. And that there was a school that no one had passed from for the last 5 years...
Now there was a head master at this institution a white guy remarkable in many ways but also greatly flawed. He made a point of meeting with the new intake into this insituation... I recall this moment as one of the most honest that I had as a child that information was give that was truthful. He said that we were lucky to be here, that less than 1/2 who sat the exam were successful. That we were also lucky because more of us were from the country and the urban cohorts were more successful and even more remarakable was the fact that we were male, and that less of us were deserving of the place as more girls reached a higher standard at the CEE than boys.... (gender norming!!!!). And he made a professy that only 10 % of us would have the grades to go on to A'levels.. And 5 % would go on to university.. We were starting 2 years behind the cohorts in the UK studying for a British exam.... He also said many of us would become part of a international brotherhood who would be quite remarkable...
I too like Tropi was traumatised by my education. Except I cannot blame blonds white people or Kanada... I was traumertised by the brutality of primary schools (them beatings we got was not cultural it was child abuse!), by the lack of quality teachers, by the constant never ending desire to make us into christians, antiquated teaching methodologies, by lack of resources. By knowing that the unfairness of the system. I recall that there were so many who failed no because of rascism or even poverty but by the same lack of badly deployed resources.... The Deacon says it better...
Education for underdevelopment
published: Sunday | January 22, 2006
Peter Espeut, Contributor
I LISTENED with interest to a recent discussion on the Breakfast Club about the future of education in Jamaica, about what could be done to improve it. What was interesting was the lack of ideas on what to do. They were agreed that more money (investment) was needed in the sector, but were not very clear on what to spend it on.
"We need more schools" was the cry; and indeed we do. We do not have enough schools to accommodate all Jamaican children, especially at the secondary level.
But let us not deceive ourselves. The primary schools we have now are producing illiterates such that the Government's current White Paper on education sets a five-year target of 60 per cent of grade six children being able to read at grade six level - which means that even now, the figure is much less than that. Decidedly, what we do not need is more schools like that!
COLONIAL PLANTOCRACY AGENDA
The context, of course, is national development. Possibly, we now agree that it was a terribly wrong move for all the governments since 1944 to have so effectively ensured the availability of an unskilled agricultural labour force by providing low-quality primary education and by restricting the secondary franchise. In my view, it is this decision by both the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to continue the dependence on sugar and bananas by keeping the majority of Jamaicans good for little else other than unskilled praedial labour, that has held back the economic development of this country. Both the JLP and PNP have stuck to the agenda of the colonial plantocracy. I can't believe that in the 21st century we are still calling mayors "Your Worship"! Are we supposed to worship them? And as for calling Prime Ministers "Most Honourable"!
I have to repeat the figures for those who may have missed them. At Independence we had 41 high schools and eight senior schools - precursors of junior secondary schools and new secondary schools. To get into a high school you had to pass the Common Entrance Examination (CEE), for which there is no pass mark: the number of high school places determines the number who 'pass'. If you build more high school places, then more Jamaican children can 'pass' for high school.
After 15 years of Independence (in 1977), and a series of JLP and PNP governments, we had 44 high schools and 71 new secondary schools. To get into a new secondary school you have to fail the CEE). In other words, the series of JLP and PNP governments did not want more Jamaican children to 'pass' the CEE; if they did, they would have built more high schools and less new secondary schools.
UNSKILLED LABOUR
The fact that they built more schools for children to have to fail the CEE to enter, means that they wanted more children to fail the exam than pass it! This is what I mean when I say that both the PNP and JLP have made sure that the agricultural sector will always have enough unskilled labour.
Just to put some figures to it: in 1977, there were 50,274 children in grade six in primary, all-age and independent schools eligible to take the CEE; 32,485 took the exam (so 17,789 did not even get a chance to fail) and only 4,777 'passed' because there were only that number of high school places. There was simply no room in high school that year for 45,497 Jamaican children. Other countries don't have an exam like this because they make sure that there are enough grade seven high school places to accommodate all their grade six primary students.
Imagine if since 1962 we had put all our primary students into high school instead of letting them languish in all-age schools, junior high schools and secondary schools? Many of those children would now be entrepreneurs, operating businesses, employing people, making money for themselves and for Jamaica. In fact, there probably would be a shortage of labour, and we would have to employ immigrant labour from poorer countries - like The Bahamas, Bermuda, The Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, have to do.
Possibly we now agree that it was a terribly wrong move for all the governments since 1944 to have so effectively ensured the availability of an unskilled agricultural labour force by providing low-quality primary education and restricting the secondary franchise. Things are not much better today; we now have about 12,000 children each year passing the renamed CEE to get into high school.
There is only so much that can be said in a short column about solutions, but let me ask: When are we going to break out of this colonial/agricultural mode? A focus on basic schools is good, but unless there is also an emphasis on high school education, we will forever remain an underdeveloped country.
Now there was a head master at this institution a white guy remarkable in many ways but also greatly flawed. He made a point of meeting with the new intake into this insituation... I recall this moment as one of the most honest that I had as a child that information was give that was truthful. He said that we were lucky to be here, that less than 1/2 who sat the exam were successful. That we were also lucky because more of us were from the country and the urban cohorts were more successful and even more remarakable was the fact that we were male, and that less of us were deserving of the place as more girls reached a higher standard at the CEE than boys.... (gender norming!!!!). And he made a professy that only 10 % of us would have the grades to go on to A'levels.. And 5 % would go on to university.. We were starting 2 years behind the cohorts in the UK studying for a British exam.... He also said many of us would become part of a international brotherhood who would be quite remarkable...
I too like Tropi was traumatised by my education. Except I cannot blame blonds white people or Kanada... I was traumertised by the brutality of primary schools (them beatings we got was not cultural it was child abuse!), by the lack of quality teachers, by the constant never ending desire to make us into christians, antiquated teaching methodologies, by lack of resources. By knowing that the unfairness of the system. I recall that there were so many who failed no because of rascism or even poverty but by the same lack of badly deployed resources.... The Deacon says it better...
Education for underdevelopment
published: Sunday | January 22, 2006
Peter Espeut, Contributor
I LISTENED with interest to a recent discussion on the Breakfast Club about the future of education in Jamaica, about what could be done to improve it. What was interesting was the lack of ideas on what to do. They were agreed that more money (investment) was needed in the sector, but were not very clear on what to spend it on.
"We need more schools" was the cry; and indeed we do. We do not have enough schools to accommodate all Jamaican children, especially at the secondary level.
But let us not deceive ourselves. The primary schools we have now are producing illiterates such that the Government's current White Paper on education sets a five-year target of 60 per cent of grade six children being able to read at grade six level - which means that even now, the figure is much less than that. Decidedly, what we do not need is more schools like that!
COLONIAL PLANTOCRACY AGENDA
The context, of course, is national development. Possibly, we now agree that it was a terribly wrong move for all the governments since 1944 to have so effectively ensured the availability of an unskilled agricultural labour force by providing low-quality primary education and by restricting the secondary franchise. In my view, it is this decision by both the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to continue the dependence on sugar and bananas by keeping the majority of Jamaicans good for little else other than unskilled praedial labour, that has held back the economic development of this country. Both the JLP and PNP have stuck to the agenda of the colonial plantocracy. I can't believe that in the 21st century we are still calling mayors "Your Worship"! Are we supposed to worship them? And as for calling Prime Ministers "Most Honourable"!
I have to repeat the figures for those who may have missed them. At Independence we had 41 high schools and eight senior schools - precursors of junior secondary schools and new secondary schools. To get into a high school you had to pass the Common Entrance Examination (CEE), for which there is no pass mark: the number of high school places determines the number who 'pass'. If you build more high school places, then more Jamaican children can 'pass' for high school.
After 15 years of Independence (in 1977), and a series of JLP and PNP governments, we had 44 high schools and 71 new secondary schools. To get into a new secondary school you have to fail the CEE). In other words, the series of JLP and PNP governments did not want more Jamaican children to 'pass' the CEE; if they did, they would have built more high schools and less new secondary schools.
UNSKILLED LABOUR
The fact that they built more schools for children to have to fail the CEE to enter, means that they wanted more children to fail the exam than pass it! This is what I mean when I say that both the PNP and JLP have made sure that the agricultural sector will always have enough unskilled labour.
Just to put some figures to it: in 1977, there were 50,274 children in grade six in primary, all-age and independent schools eligible to take the CEE; 32,485 took the exam (so 17,789 did not even get a chance to fail) and only 4,777 'passed' because there were only that number of high school places. There was simply no room in high school that year for 45,497 Jamaican children. Other countries don't have an exam like this because they make sure that there are enough grade seven high school places to accommodate all their grade six primary students.
Imagine if since 1962 we had put all our primary students into high school instead of letting them languish in all-age schools, junior high schools and secondary schools? Many of those children would now be entrepreneurs, operating businesses, employing people, making money for themselves and for Jamaica. In fact, there probably would be a shortage of labour, and we would have to employ immigrant labour from poorer countries - like The Bahamas, Bermuda, The Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, have to do.
Possibly we now agree that it was a terribly wrong move for all the governments since 1944 to have so effectively ensured the availability of an unskilled agricultural labour force by providing low-quality primary education and restricting the secondary franchise. Things are not much better today; we now have about 12,000 children each year passing the renamed CEE to get into high school.
There is only so much that can be said in a short column about solutions, but let me ask: When are we going to break out of this colonial/agricultural mode? A focus on basic schools is good, but unless there is also an emphasis on high school education, we will forever remain an underdeveloped country.
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