As I listened to President Barack Obama deliver a policy speech on education Tuesday last, I couldn't help but notice how radically different the approach has been in Jamaica and the USA.

"Economic progress and educational achievement have always gone hand in hand in America."

This has decidedly not been so for Jamaica. For decades the economic progress Jamaica sought was wrapped up in cheap unskilled agricultural labour - in cane fields, banana estates and coffee pieces. If you read the annual reports of the Department of Education the focus for the masses was 'manual training'.

Education meant liberation from the soil, and if too many people could read and 'check', there would soon be a shortage of agricultural labour. And so for Plantation Jamaica, economic progress (for plantation owners) meant inhibiting educational achievement.

"The source of America's prosperity has never been merely how ably we accumulated wealth, but how we educate our people."

The goal in the USA was to lift the vast majority of Americans into the middle class. We have never had that goal in Jamaica. Who then would be the gardeners and housemaids for our middle class?

What you know

"In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shifted wherever there's an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you do but what you know - education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success; it is the prerequisite for success."

The success they are talking about here is not the success of the private sector but the success of the average American. When we talk about economic growth and development in Jamaica I am never sure we ever mean development for Jamaican men and women. The last five-year education plan set the target of 55 per cent of our grade six children being able to read, which means that actuality was below that. The average Jamaican child is lucky if he or she ever learns to read, and the issue of competing with children from Dallas or New Delhi does not even arise.

"The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, it is unsustainable for our democracy, it's unacceptable for our children. And we can't afford to let it continue. What's at stake is nothing less than the American dream."

Right now the Jamaican dream is to go to America to get a taste of their dream. To become a developed country, Jamaica must experience decades of sustained economic growth. Our strategy has been to invite screwdriver industries here to make use of our cheap, unskilled but trainable labour force. I don't know if that approach is worthy of us. We must educate ordinary Jamaicans to become the drivers of the economy, to become entrepreneurs, so we can grow ourselves out of our underdevelopment.

God-given potential

"It's that most American of ideas that with the right education a child of any race, any faith, any station, can overcome whatever barriers stand in their way and fulfil their God-given potential."

President Obama wants that "right education" to be given to American children. He has the political gumption to demand it during his administration, and he is prepared to make radical changes.

He says that the school day is too short, and that students need more contact hours in each day. He also says that the vacations are too long, and that to compete internationally, American students must be in school for more days. After all, the teachers are being paid for twelve months but work for only nine.

"I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high. We can afford nothing but the best when it comes to our children's teachers and the schools where they teach."

President Obama has called for a "culture of accountability in schools". There are bad teachers, and bad teachers must be moved out of the classroom. Good persons must be encouraged to become teachers, and last Tuesday he challenged Americans to join the teaching profession. He announced more pay in scarce subject areas like science and mathematics.

"The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens."

What is Jamaica's future going to be like? Give us vision lest we perish!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com