FREE EDUCATION!!! WHY NOT?

By Delano Seiveright

“The Right to Education is a fundamental human right. … As an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty, and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. None of the civil, political, economic and social rights can be exercised by individuals unless they have received a certain minimum education.” – UNESCO

FREE EDUCATION?

The public continues to be misinformed about the JLP’s planned free education policy when it becomes government. One must as a matter of urgency clear the air on this unnecessarily controversial issue.

HISTORY

The history of free education in Jamaica was first proposed in the JLP’s 1944 manifesto. Under the Michael Manley regime of the 1970s it was implemented. However, the economy at the time collapsed under the weight of poor economic policies. This was the period at which Manley brought Jamaica down the road of so called democratic socialism. Tuition-free education thereafter proved unsustainable. The JLP administration of the 1980s, however, continued the policy at the primary and secondary level. It was the PNP administration of the early 1990s that reversed the policy.

ELIMINATING COST SHARING?

It was in 2002 that the then Prime Minister PJ Patterson, said he would eliminate cost sharing - a mechanism through which government and parents pay portions of the school fee - by 2005. This would have made education tuition free up to the secondary level. We are now in the year 2007 and that policy is yet to be fulfilled, leaving thousands of poor families in the quandary. Where is the outrage?

YOU HAVE OUR WORD

That being said, it must be noted that the children of Jamaica are to benefit from tuition-free primary and secondary education under a JLP government. This according to the Opposition Spokesman on Education, Andrew Holness, will cost in the region of J$1 billon per year.

Despite the terrible state of the economy brought on by mismanagement and failed economic policies, on the part of the PNP administrations of the past 18 years, there are ways to fund this important policy. A simple reallocation of public resources will more than cover the monies needed to fund it. Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and many other progressive societies have made this possible.

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Jamaica will have to make a sustainable sacrifice. The government scandals and profligacy of the last 18 years have cost this country tens of billions of dollars. There is no reason then for anyone to create rumpus about Jamaica being unable to fund this noble policy? The country managed to rustle up over US$150 million for the Cricket World Cup and an additional US$125 million for Air Jamaica, both of which to any levelheaded person has little or no impact on Jamaica’s future economic and social development.

SOLUTIONS

Many solutions have been put forward to overhaul our education system. Commendably, the government’s task force on education report so far has put the most comprehensive solutions forward. The cost to implement the proposals in the report amount to a whopping $521.4 billion over 10 years or approximately $52 billion per year.

GORDON HOUSE RESOLUTION

Unfortunately, finding $52 billion per year, in our current economic state isn’t feasible. A more pragmatic and far-reaching solution was brokered in a bi-partisan (Jamaica Labour Party/People's National Party) accord on education encapsulated in a resolution passed in Gordon House in October 2003. The resolution committed the government to increase to 15 per cent over five years, the budgetary allocation to education, moving up by an incremental one per cent per year over five years. The government has unfortunately failed to honour that agreement. As a matter of fact, only approximately 11 per cent of the budget had been allocated to education for the 2006/2007 financial year.

Further yet the resolution committed the government to: A programme to renovate, rebuild and equip basic schools; the provision of a comprehensive textbook lending programme for primary schools; to work with schools to provide a compulsory homework or literacy hour after classes; the reduction of the teacher-student ratio to 1:25 at the primary school level and finally the government takeover of a significant number of basic schools (1,800 in number) through the provision of funding and the appointment of at least one trained teacher, in the first instance.

WHAT HAPPENED?

What is the status of the aforementioned commitments in this far-reaching resolution? An update is immediately required from the Minister of Education, Maxine Henry-Wilson.

One seriously wonders how much longer government will continue to dawdle with the issue of overhauling of our education system? Our society already seems to be collapsing under the heavy weight of ignorance. It is high time therefore that education be placed on the front burner once and for all.

Food for thought:

You think education is expensive try ignorance.

Delano Seiveright

Deputy General Secretary, G2K

PR Administrator, JLP

Email: delanoseiveright@yahoo.com

G2K or Generation 2000 is the young professional affiliate of the Jamaica Labour Party.