THE TABLING in Parliament last week of a White Paper on education has followed well over a year of sometimes acrimonious public discussion of a precursor Green Paper.
The Senate on Friday greeted Minister Whiteman's presentation with rousing bipartisan applause. Undoubtedly, as the parliamentary discussion gets underway there will be points of disagreement between Government and Opposition. But the bi-partisan welcome of the White Paper augurs well for broad political agreement on the future of education.
We urge both sides to use the conduct of the debate to send strong signals to the public, and to youth and children in particular, about civility, the importance of education, and about transcending bickering towards partisan ends in favour of consensus on essentials in such a vital area for national development. This is particularly important at this time when the education system itself is being over-run by indiscipline and violence.
The retention of provisions for the employment of new principals on contract against the strenuous objection of the JTA may well be an indication of the determination of the government not to be held to ransom by powerful sectoral interests in the push for genuine education reform. There is room for fair and legally sound contractual arrangements for both sides. One obvious and very deservable consequence is the attachment of measurable performance criteria and resource input requirements to the terms of contracts.
Among other provisions are a High School Equivalency Programme for adults and out-of-school youth; greater government involvement with early childhood education; stronger partnership with school, community and other stakeholders; and greater attention to civics education.
The Prime Minister's promise that there will be an expenditure of at least 15 per cent of the annual recurrent budget on education is not likely to be kept. There are already considerable difficulties in meeting about 11 per cent. Let realism prevail. The FINSAC debt comes on to the budget in the coming fiscal year. Unless other needy factors are to be further starved the education slice of the budget cannot be significantly expanded. The really feasible reforms will be those not requiring significant additional budgetary support. The parliamentary debate should seek to clearly identify these key elements as a demonstration of good sense.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
