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JAMAICA EDUCATION SYSTEM

Over the years Jamaica has produced well educated individuals who are successful around the

world. Even though we have some of the finest, successful educated people in every field of

endeavor I have to ask this question “How come we are seeing a failing education system?” This

is a question I consider to be contradicting but our education system does have some good to it.

Despite a few area of excellence scattered across the various sections of the system, Jamaica’s

education system is failing. Each year a significant number of the student population simply

limps aimlessly through the school system without attaining the required skills and knowledge

necessary for them to become productive members of the society. Every year we notice the

interesting and disturbing trend that a growing number of parents care more about whether or not

their children have made the graduation list as against whether they have qualified to take their

CSEC examination. Recently the education system in Jamaica has been under close scrutiny, and

the findings have not been encouraging in regard to what is expected as quality education in the

society.

Jamaica’s public formal education system currently provides education for approximately

500,000 students enrolled at the primary and secondary levels in 955 educational institutions

island-wide. The National Education Inspectorate (NEI) which is an independent body

accountable to the Minister, responsible for the inspection of schools and regional operations and

providing evaluation and high quality advice for decision making by the Ministry of Education,

Cabinet and Parliament release a report in May 2013. The findings presented in this report were

based on two hundred and five (205) schools that were inspected between September 2011 and

March 2012. The objective was to establish a baseline of the quality of educational inputs and

outputs in the schools inspected. Based on the finding from this report it is evident that there are

three major contributing causes to our failing education system. According to an article in the
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Jamaica Observer dated June 10, 2013, Campbell “according to the NEI, 86 out of 205 schools

examined had a serious problem with management and leadership. Interestingly, it is the

Ministry of Education, through school boards, which is responsible for appointing principals.

Obviously, the education ministry has not been doing a good job, indeed the ministry is itself

failing.” He also said “We need to make it abundantly clear to all principals that they will be held

accountable for their performance, or the lack thereof, in all skill areas of teaching, leading and

management. Principals should be charged with managing the academic day-to- day running of

their schools and assisted by a manager to take charge of the non-academic functions and

activities of the school.” It is very important that the principals get support from the Education

Ministry in doing this job. There are personal matters which the principals have to control among

the staff. There are schools that have teachers not talking to each other. According to an article in

the Jamaica online star dated November 28, 2011, Taylor stated that “Recently in a speech, the

education minister seemed surprised and appalled when he stated that there exists in some

schools a culture where teachers are not even speaking to their colleagues. Regrettably, situations

like this have become entrenched in the education system and have got worse over the years. It is

small wonder that the results of some schools are so abysmal.” Now it is impossible for any

school to have teachers not talking to each other because this will put the students at a lost

because of the tension among colleagues.

Secondly, the manner and style in which students are being taught. With the Grade 4 Literacy

and Numeracy being introduced in the Jamaican Education System in 1999 through the

education ministry’s National Assessment Program this should make it much easier for educators

to deal with students who are not up to the required standard. Grade 4 Literacy and Numeracy is

not the only exams that are in place for educators to know which level a child is at. There is a
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Readiness Inventory exam which the students entering the primary level education do before

they start school in September. Grade 3 assessment test in Language Arts and Mathematics is the

next test that is done to identify the level of education for each child. With all these exams

teachers should have it much easier to identify the weaker students from the stronger ones and

find interesting ways in which they teach them. In further support of this finding, Campbell,

(2013) said “for the most part, our teachers do not structure their lessons to cater to the top or

brightest pupils. In fact, this is not unique to Jamaica since most teachers do not wish to leave

any student behind. Hence, their lessons are pitched to the average or low-performing students in

their class. The education system does not adequately challenge our gifted students and the

society continues to fail them also. We need a paradigm shift in terms of how teachers plan their

lessons. Let us look at the school of thought that says it is best to plan a lesson with the brightest

pupils in mind, and by so doing the teacher will be able to pull up those who are struggling”.

Finally, many parents are to be held accountable for failing schools. Parents need to get involved

in the educating of the children. Campbell, 2013 stated that “we need to get more of our parents

on board as the third critical component of the stakeholders involved in the teaching and learning

experience. The lack of positive parenting is at the root of many of the ills which now plague the

education system. The fact is we have lost an entire generation of Jamaicans because of poor

parenting practices. Many of the parents in today's society have not a clue as to what it is to be a

parent. As a result a significant number of our students have no one to model their behaviour.

Too many of our students now look to the popular culture of the day as the main means of

socialisation.” According to an article on psychologytoday.com website by Gentry a parent grade

of "satisfactory," "needs improvement," or "unsatisfactory" would have appeared on the child's

report card rated in four categories. Did these parents communicate with teachers, attend
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meetings, help their children complete homework and prepare for tests, pay attention to absentee

and tardy rates, and send kids to school rested and well nourished?”

Based on the research that was done, it can be concluded that Jamaica Education System is

failing due to a number of reasons such as: ineffective leadership and poor management,

ineffective teaching and learning and lack of parent involvement. No one wants to see a failing

education system so as The Ministry of Education's public education theme states, 'Every Child

Can Learn, Every Child Must Learn".