The Editor, Sir:

Thank you, Mr Seaga! I thought that I understood the complexities and problems in Jamaica's education system until I read Mr Seaga's article ('Numbers count - in education', Page E3 Sunday). I have read several articles and letters to the editor on education in Jamaica. Many have focused on poor CSEC performance and on barely literate students being sent to high schools. But I never so clearly understood Jamaica's problem(s) until I examined the survival chart of students born in 1987.

Crime not the main problem

Most Jamaicans believe that our number one problem is crime followed by corruption. I beg to differ. Our number one problem is education (or the lack of it). Crime and corruption are only symptoms. We can continue treating the symptoms and we will continue to have high levels of crime. Listen to the talk shows. Callers recommend hard policing.

This is a simplistic proposition. Others think that at the root of serious crime is the link between politicians and criminals. I could not believe my ears when I heard someone opine that crime would be controlled if we appointed a minister of national security who was not from the Corporate Area or St Catherine.

Let us examine the figures: 28 per cent of the 2003 cohort (14,400) dropped out or never entered any secondary school! Only 34 per cent of the cohort (17,542) actually sat CSEC and 15 per cent (7,728) passed. Which country can afford for 66 per cent of a cohort not even attempting an exam at the end of grade 11 or for 85 per cent not "coming up with the goods"? What happens to the 85 per cent? They end up on a dunghill?

We are asking for trouble. Let us look at our major problems: murders, illegal drugs, extortion, night noises, lewd music, poor driving habits, etc. When we have an average of 40,000 young people per annum not making the mark, what do we expect? Promise all the jobs you want, but which sane investor (local or foreign) is going to put his capital at risk in these conditions?

Politicians on both sides, stop the bickering and get to the work at hand! (I'm not sanguine). Educated people are easier to govern. How do you even try to govern a largely uneducated population? We will continue to have the same problems (the blocking of roads, the setting of fire to landfills, the vandalism of JUTC buses, etc) if we don't get our act together.

Do we really want to become a Caribbean Zimbabwe?

I am, etc.,

Norman W.M. Thompson

Dept of English and Modern Languages

Northern Caribbean University

Mandeville