Ralph Thompson - Norman Grindley/ Staff Photographer

The present debate on education in Jamaica is a case of déjà vu. I am bemused to note that nearly all the participants in the argument continue to focus on symptoms rather than getting to the root cause of the present dilemma. And it is not as if the root cause has not been drawn to public attention.

I have devoted some years as a former member of the National Council on Education (NCE) and now a member of the Early Childhood Commission to demonstrating that unless we reform the early childhood system, we will continue to produce a large number of uneducated children in the other links of the education chain, right up to university level. But it seems that no one reads or absorbs any of the available information.

We are concerned about the recent Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results, attacking the test as being unfair (I am no fan of it), but we hardly even mention that if children get a proper early childhood education, proficient in both Patois and Standard English, well grounded in the two most important subjects, namely English and mathematics, the GSAT scores would automatically tend to even out.

Our waste of intellectual energy in these debates can best be demonstrated by the following: In a paper prepared in 2001, signed by Sir Kenneth Hall, then chairman of the NCE, and by me, specific recommendations for the overhaul of the education system were documented. These recommendations dealt with many of the revised issues in the public debate, and I highlight some of them here.

The following recommendations for reforming education in Jamaica encompass a vision which, if accepted by the political directorate, will redeem the failures of the present system and restore it to health and vitality within one generation.

That:

1. Since a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, priority emphasis must be placed on early childhood education to ensure that at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, there is a stream of pupils with the potential to benefit from an integrated educational system.

2. Existing legislation be revisited and/or new legislation enacted for the proper regulation of early childhood schools, such legislation to ensure, inter alia, acceptable minimum standards covering facilities, infrastructure and the qualification of teachers.

3. Legislation be revisited to clarify attendance of children at schools, public and private, be compulsory from basic schools through primary schools, and set appropriate fines for intentional breaches of these laws.

4. To establish once and for all the professional standing of teachers as fit persons to teach throughout the education system, both as to level of qualifications, and ethical behaviour in and out of the classroom. All teachers must be licensed to practise their profession. To this end, legislation will be passed making it illegal for anyone to hold himself or herself out as a teacher in Jamaica unless he or she is in possession of a valid licence, such licences to be issued in the first instance for three years, renewable thereafter if the teacher remains in good standing.

6. Since top-quality education at any and all levels in the system is not possible without top-quality teachers, steps be taken as a matter of urgency to upgrade, simplify and standardise the training of teachers in Jamaica.

7. Entry requirements for persons entering teachers' colleges be raised to five CXC passes, of which those in English must not be lower than Grade Two.

8. All teachers in the education system be trained to an appropriate level and licensed accordingly.

a) The minimum qualification for teaching at the basic and primary levels will be a diploma from a teachers' college. b) The minimum qualification for teaching throughout the system will be a degree from a recognised university followed by the diploma in education, earned by pur-suing an additional year at UWI, or diploma graduates from a teachers' college with an additional university degree.

9. No new pre-trained teachers with only CXC passes would be eligible to be licensed as teachers in the system, existing pre-trained teachers to be phased out over three years. Persons now in the system displaced by this requirement will be accommodated by a three-year intervention programme which sets minimum standards.

10. Government must not hesitate to recruit foreign teachers to teach in the upper grades of secondary schools if Jamaicans do not respond to the new salary levels.

11. Standardisation of primary and secondary education under the ROSE and other programmes, already completed for grades seven to nine, be finalised through Grade 11 as soon as possible.

12. To ensure excellence, transparency and accountability, the principals of schools have power to discipline teachers under his or her control. Only appeals for dismissal should be appealable to the Teachers' Services Commission.

13. If principals, having been given executive power, fail to meet performance targets set by the ministry, they should be removed from the system either by way of redundancy, or dismissal. Performance evaluation of principals should be at three-year intervals.

Eight years after these recommendations, we have not adopted them and continue to skirt around the most fundamental issue in any debate about education. I applaud the minister of education's call for principals to display greater leadership, but for this to work, it must be coupled with the licensing of teachers and giving principals the power to hire and fire.

In summary, it seems to me that what is of merit in the current debate is not new, and what is new is of little or no merit.

It would be refreshing if all the letter writers would go down each of the recommendations and discuss them on their own merit. I hope I live long enough to see such a day.