Jamaica Facing Education Emergency, JTA President Warns | RJR News
By Racquel Porter
Jamaica is facing an education emergency, but it has not yet been named.
That’s the warning from Jamaica Teachers’ Association President La Sonja Harrison, who says urgent action is needed to address the challenges facing the country’s education system.
Sounding the alarm at the Rotary Club of Kingston luncheon on Thursday, Mrs. Harrison lamented that the education sector has been plagued by disruptions.
“COVID-19 interrupted the education system of an entire generation. Then came Hurricane Beryl, then Hurricane Melissa. In between, there have been floods, earthquakes, fires, infrastructural failures, teacher shortages and other disruptions,” she pointed out.
Revisiting Jamaica’s journey from post-Emancipation to pre-Independence and to where the country is now, Mrs. Harrison said considerable time has been spent recovering buildings.
“We’re recovering buildings, we’re replacing some equipment and we’re restoring operations. But we have not given the same national urgency to recovering learning, even with the reactivation of the emergencies in education plan to include the modified objectives of the National Standards Curriculum,” she contended.
With many of those efforts set in train following Hurricane Melissa, the JTA president said further change is needed.
Mrs. Harrison said when children progress through school without mastering reading, comprehension, writing and numeracy, stakeholders are not dealing with merely an academic problem, but a social issue in that Jamaica’s future is being compromised.
On July 21, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry Senator Marlon Morgan encouraged school leaders to take advantage of a $75 million allocation by the Ministry of Education, to implement targeted intervention programmes aimed at improving student literacy and numeracy outcomes.
Senator Morgan said the funding will support schools that develop innovative strategies to help struggling learners achieve their full potential.
He explained that the funding has been earmarked specifically to support school-based remedial initiatives.
In the meantime, the JTA president has questioned the plan to retrofit Jamaica’s classrooms to ease the discomfort being experienced by students and teachers due to the sweltering heat.
Mrs. Harrison’s concern comes after students and teachers at Holland Primary School in St. Elizabeth sought relief in the shade provided by a mango tree and a bamboo structure, after the heat became unbearable in two classrooms under a tent.
Speaking Tuesday at the launch of the Jamaica Reconstruction and Resilience Oversight Committee (JAMRROC), Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness recalled his own experience of hot classrooms and how learning outside was his favourite time.
He noted that the situation remains the same for some students, making a classroom under trees “closer to nature” and not something to be looked down on.
The comment has since drawn criticism.
Responding Thursday, Mrs. Harrison said Dr. Holness’ own experience underscores what teachers have been saying for years and “raises another conversation about the quality of the temporary structures that are being erected”.
She urged the private sector to assist.
“We call also on corporate Jamaica. Is it possible to donate some fans to some of these temporary structures that are being erected by the government to treat with while it is that they rebuild several of those schools that don’t have a school, don’t have enough classrooms?”