THE EDITOR, Sir:

Plaudits must go out to the new minister of education, young Andrew Holness. He has hit the ground running and his obvious commitment to decisiveness, discipline and transparency is a breath of fresh air from a minister whose predecessor was wont to blame the students' choice of secondary school for the weaknesses in our education system. I endorse his tough stance on security and discipline in schools and hope that he keeps his nerve when the weeping and wailing from parents' groups with vested interests in mediocrity reaches the anticipated crescendo.

His stance on cellphones has particularly impressed me. Those instruments are appropriately named, as they imprison the minds of those addicted to their use, and they have suddenly become the accessory of choice regardless of what the cellphone owner ought to be doing instead of the overuse and abuse of their vocal chords to the detriment of their safety and the consequential atrophy of their brain cells.

Several generations of Jamaican children endured school through puberty to adulthood without the faintest hope of communication during school hours, except with their teachers, fellow students or with the permission of the principal. Ask yourselves what were the academic and extra-curricular results posted by those generations compared to those of the modern cellphone-dependent generation. Need I say anything more?

But discipline, an essential to education of any kind, does not end with a cellphone ban. I am against corporal punishment in schools (which was not used in my time at a leading secondary school), but there must be adverse consequences (aka 'punishment') for indiscipline, and I hope that this minister will not encourage the practice that has developed, of disciplinary decisions taken by the school being routinely overturned by the ministry. It is this practice more than any other that has emboldened antisocial elements to treat teachers with scant regard, which has led to instances of violence against teachers.

Let the disciplinary decisions stand. Some will be wrong, but even that kind of adversity will strengthen the student's character. The signal that we simply cannot afford to send out to today's society is that the teacher can be ignored and his/her authority flouted.

So, there has been a marked improvement at the Ministry of Education. Now, if only we can get the same sort of consistency, vision and efficiency out of the Ministry of Finance instead of this unseemly scrambling around to collect the uncollectible, so-called 'back taxes' from innocent, hard-working, fully paid-up taxpayers who are unable to leave $18 million in cash lying around their bedroom for the police to seize and to eventually disappear from the custody of Finance Ministry officials, we will be on the way.

I am, etc.,

GORDON ROBINSON

gordon_robinson@flowja.com

Kingston 10

Via-Go-Jamaica