Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

Past students: businessman Charles Johnston and Ambassador Madge Barrett pose with Rusea's Old Students' Association President Lloyd Tomlinson at The Jamaica Pegasus on Friday, May 2, as the organisation celebrated its 50th anniversary. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

With up to 53,000 young people leaving the education sector every year with minimum or less qualifications, Prime Minister Bruce Golding stressed that a systemic overhaul was necessary to facilitate every child's capacity to learn.

"We are getting to a stage when it's no longer cheap labour that drives economic development, and strength of muscle, but brain power," he said at the Rusea's Old Students' Association (ROSA) 50th anniversary luncheon at The Jamaica Pegasus.

"If we don't get them to a stage where their academic preparation can drive economic development, we are going to be facing a dismal future," the prime minister added.

Good template

Golding expressed his respect and admiration for ROSA, commending their sterling contributions to Rusea's High School, in Lucea, Hanover, in the form of facilities, scholarships and mentorship, a template he suggested should be institutionalised.

"Good schools performing well, achieving goals, is invariably because the chief support system is a school family, and a school family must be built around students, teachers, parents, past students, the community and the corporate entity," the prime minister said.

In excess of $50 billion of the national budget has been allocated to education.

Under the Transformation of Education programme, several issues will be addressed, among them teacher performance and capability; school management; and greater application of e-learning to provide greater technical aid in delivering standardised lessons.

tendai-franklyn.brown@gleanerjm.com