Today, the lifestyle of the individual and nature of the society are very different.

Where there was order and discipline, now there is disorder and indiscipline; where the interests of the community were deep, now the focus is on individual interests and needs; where respect was due, there is now disrespect;where work was an honest livelihood, for many today, work is for those who do not know how to beat the system; where acts of violence were a result of disputes between individuals, today, there is violence against entire communities, often without provocation; where crime was under control, crime is now out of control reaching record levels which position Jamaica among the most violent countries on earth.

The leadership of Government has gone further than that in changing the character of the people. The breakdown of the finer values of the people can be linked to the exasperation of the long wait for a prosperous economy. Many must now urgently seek for themselves and fight for themselves in order to survive.

Many persons, who are desperate, often cannot allow honesty or the law to stand in their way. What is more, the needs of the people today are urgent.

They cannot postpone their bills or the need for food, clothing or shelter. These basic needs have to be satisfied today because nobody expects tomorrow to be better. So the quickest way to get a dollar, no matter how, becomes the best way to earn a dollar. The character of the nation has undergone a radical change.

In these circumstances, there is need for a new learning process to educate the people in positive social attitudes.

The school system today is academic-based, as it must be. The system must train students to understand English, mathematics, literature, science, and so on. Whether it does so adequately is not the question here. The question is whether an academic education is sufficient to reshape the character of the country to recapture the social attitudes of the past that made Jamaicans proud of Jamaica. The answer is, it is not adequate.

There is an urgent need to reform the curriculum of the education system to include character-based education, to reinforce the need for good citizenship. This new look is so vital to Jamaica that it cannot be left only to the ad hoc work of good-minded people and organisations with a social purpose to give voluntary support to retraining those who are antisocial.

What is worse, we fool ourselves if we believe that the antisocial attitudes formed over 20 to 30 years are best remedied by on-and-off social work programmes for persons older than 20 or 30 years of age. While we must pursue all courses, we are fighting an uphill battle of immense proportions when we rely only on efforts to change those whose characters are already formed.

We can effectively ensure that the formation of character takes place in the best social environment by starting where we can reach the next generation while their minds are open and behaviour patterns can be shaped and they are all assembled where they can be collectively reached.

Reform system

The education system must be reformed to introduce character-based education to teach young people, from basic schools to high schools, life-skills and social values. These cannot be extra-curricular lectures or workshop projects. They must be curriculum subjects which are graded in examinations and the grades included in school leaving certificates.

Several years ago, in the mid-1990s, I set up a committee chaired by Lloyd B. Smith of the Western Mirror in Montego Bay, with a small team to explore the possibility of introducing character education into Jamaican schools. The team members were Dr. Ralph Thompson, Dr. Henry Lowe, Dr. Joyce Robinson, Dr. Rebecca Tortello and Mrs. Lola Ramocan.

The work of the committee was to take a look at and advise on the character education programmes already in operation in some educational districts in the United States.

In these areas, the structure of the curriculum is based on "pillars of character". These 'pillars' all have subsets. A set of six pillars and subsets were selected by the committee which I will set out here:

Trustworthiness: Be honest. Don't deceive, cheat or steal. Be reliable - do what you say you'll do. Have the courage to do the right thing. Build a good reputation. Be loyal - stand by your family, friends and country.

Respect: Treat others with respect; follow the golden rule. Be tolerant of differences. Use good manners, not bad language. Be considerate of the feelings of others. Don't threaten, hit or hurt anyone. Deal peacefully with anger, insults and disagreements.

Responsibility: Do what you are supposed to do. Persevere: keep on trying! Always do your best. Use self-control. Be self-disciplined. Think before you act - consider the consequences. Be accountable for your choices.

Fairness: Play by the rules - Take turns and share; be open-minded; listen to others; don't take advantage of others; don't blame others carelessly.

Caring: Be kind - be compassionate and show you care; express gratitude; forgive others; help people in need.

Citizenship: Do your share to make your school and community better. Cooperate - get involved in community affairs. Stay informed; vote. Be a good neighbour. Obey laws and rules. Respect authority; protect the environment.

The Ministry of Education is apparently ready to take a first step at this stage which comes close, but is not quite the same as character education. It recently advised that the new curriculum to be introduced in 2011 will address self-esteem, eating right, fitness and environmental issues.

Positive step

This is a positive step because it at least demonstrates that the present curriculum is not inviolable. I have long advocated the inclusion of teaching students how to eat right because of the impact of an improper diet, in content and quality, as a cause of some of the diseases, like diabetes and heart failure, which account for the most deaths.

The need to include character education on the syllabus for grading is to ensure that the subject is taken seriously by students. But even more so the grade in that subject is likely to be ranked as high as English and mathematics in the assessment of the student for employment or tertiary education.

One of the real weaknesses among young Jamaicans is that even where there is mastery of the academic subjects in the curriculum, they often fall short in a number of other ways which reveal shortcomings in their character. What is generally referred to as an 'attitude' covers a wide area of failings which contribute to non-performance and inability to obtain or hold a job.

Chief among these are a lack of commitment to whatever the assignment might be. This manifest itself in a 'don't care' attitude, lateness, low level of application to the job and an unwillingness to follow the details of the protocol for the job to be done.

Demand for respect

Also high on the agenda is the demand for respect without giving respect and the degree to which the individual is selfish and self-centred, caring little about others.

These are some of the factors which create antisocial young people who soon become socially unstable adults, unable to be a positive contributor to the society in any significant way.

Apart from the intensive training in schools, there is also a need for a campaign in the media to keep the pillars of character education fresh in mind lest students, on graduation, feel that what they learned in school was all right for school but not necessary for adult life.

I have no doubt that a well-structured campaign to be implemented in schools and on the media will create a paradigm shift in educational training and in producing better graduates to create a better society.

We have no choice but to take a step into the past to recapture what was best in the character of our people if we are to prepare them to face the future.