THE EDITOR, Sir:
SINCE THE debate on free education has began in earnest, can we examine what we will have at the end of the 'school day.' South African statesman, Nelson Mandela gives us an insight into the importance of education to national development when he said in a recent interview: "No country can really develop unless its citizens are educated. Any nation that is progressive is led by people who have had the privilege of studying."
Speaking of his incarceration he further said: "Educating ourselves was a way to give ourselves the most powerful weapon for freedom. I left prison more informed than when I went in. And the more informed you are the less arrogant and aggressive you are."
Many of our educated people in Jamaica are crass and cruel people who use their education to outsmart the uneducated and further impoverish the country. It is the educated people of the world who have the opportunity to enslave the uneducated by making decisions which suit their own 'national interests.'
The only way for a small nation like Jamaica to survive is to become so well educated in every area of human existence that no one will dare threaten her.
There should be no argument about whether education should be free. But our education must take on a nation-building element, which allows each Jamaican, from a very young age to take ownership of our country and become responsible for its growth and development. Our education must make us competent in numeracy and literacy at the highest possible standard, but it must also "Teach us true respect for all." It must nurture a high regard for justice and truth as eternal pillars of our nation. It must set a national standard by which all Jamaicans will live to preserve the soul of our nation. It must also give us a sense of obligation to the country which gives us such a precious gift as well as our identity.
Let's raise the standard of this election campaign by turning the discussion on the kind of Education that can bring us into our destiny as a nation, which will be so empowered by knowledge and operates with the wisdom to "Advance the welfare of the whole human race."
Anything to aid education: schools, teachers, libraries, churches, bookstores, publishers need to become a part of the national solution to the darkness which enshrouds Jamaica. Because, it is "For a lack of knowledge that ... people are destroyed."
I am etc.,
YVONNE O. COKE
handsacrossjamaica@peoplepc.com
Via Go-Jamaica
