The Editor, Sir:

Peter Espeut makes some very valid points in his article titled 'Fixing the family' (August 15, 2008), with which I must agree. However, I think in his suggestions, he misses a major point which needs to be voiced.

The decline of nuclear family life in Jamaica is part of a worldwide evolutionary process in which the changing mode of production no longer supports it. The nuclear family was the product of a mode of production in which male brawn was required.

Today, women have proven that they can be as productive as men are in just about all areas of industry. Whether we like it or not, it is becoming more obvious that the nuclear family is on the way out as the workforce becomes more transitory. In the absence of that, it will take, as the African proverb says, a village to raise a child.

Community disintegrated

In my view, it is not merely the family that has disintegrated in Jamaica, but the larger unit called the community. The way we place students in our schools, particularly our high schools, is part of the problem. Schools have little relationship with or relevance to the communities in which they operate. We need to decentralise power in education and other social institutions so that they become accountable to the people in the communities which they must be made to serve.

I am, etc.,

R. HOWARD THOMPSON

roi-anne@hotmail.com

Rockton,

Waltham, Mandeville