Introduction to Foundations

of Education
Group Members:
Layton Hamilton
ID# 20191279

Date: 17,02, 2020

 Topic
• Although there have been significant advances
in education in Jamaica, the existing system
continues to face severe short- comings.
Underprivileged children in rural and poor urban
areas particularly suffer from unequal access to
quality education. The existing Basic, Primary,
Secondary and higher levels continue to face severe
short comings.
 INTRODUCTION
• There are certain natural phenomena that inspire fear
in all us. In the case of an earth quake were
the rigid strength of concrete is made to mimic structures
from jelutong. In an earth quake a building entire
structure is put to the test; more so its foundation.
The Jamaican education system can be liken on to a building,
who foundation was built buy its past colonial masters. This old foundation
inequalities which makes it weak.
The Jamaican education system is on the epicenter of an constant 8.9 on the
Richter scale; which is causing which is causing it to crumble.
This then results in severe short-comings, underprivileged children and quality in education.
A Brief History Of The Jamaican
Education System
• Before the Emancipation Act took effect in 1834
• The system was fashioned after the British system
• This was built for the white colonists .
• Not for the indigenous people and slaves.
• Established through bequests from wealthy planters and
merchants.
• School were free; only boys could attend.
• The curriculum was similar to schools in Great Britain.
 A Brief History Of The Jamaican
Education System
• Plantation schools established by foreign missionaries
• After slavery was abolished in 1834
• Missionary societies developed a system of elementary
education
• The elementary curriculum focused on basic skills
• The Lumb Report of 1898; separate educational tracks
• Boys trained in agriculture; other manual arts,
• Girls received lessons in sewing and domestic science.
A Brief History Of The Jamaican
Education System
• As the years pasted population began to shift
• British whites in Jamaica began to decrease
• This created openings for leadership jobs for blacks.
• A black educated work force was need
• This fueled the growth of secondary education
• Kandel Report and the Plan for Post-Primary(1943-1944)
• further addressed the educational, social, and economic
A Brief History Of The Jamaican
Education System
• Secondary level curriculum, harsh social segregation
• universal literary core for both boys and girls
• Movement toward the self-sufficiency of the island
• The University of the West Indies was founded
• founded in 1948 at Mona, Jamaica.
• Department of Education at UWI in 1952
The Jamaican Education system 20 th

Century
The philosophical concept of Education in Jamaica is
all children can learn and all children must learn.
• The Jamaican education system have made leaps.
• It has made significant advances form it conception.
• The era of colonial lasted from (1834 -1944)
• The era of populist government ( 1953 -1970s)
• The era of structural adjustment (1970s to present.)
 The Jamaican Education System 20th
Century

• The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information

is on a mission to transform the education
system into one that operates based on
a ‘mass customisation’ format, and not ‘generalized
education’, which has been the tradition for decades.
 The Jamaican Education System
20 Century short-comings
th

• Underprivileged children in rural and poor urban area

• Unequal access to quality education.
• Unequal distribution of recourses
• Students to teacher ratio is too high.
• School accessibility for the disabled is poor.
• Classroom conditions remain static over the years
• The effects of poverty lead to absence
 The Jamaican Education System
• The Jamaican education system needs to
to be rebuilt form the foundation up wards.
• It is not wise to build a new building on the old
foundation slavery.
• The education system have seem to change
slavery masters to being free and self-governed
• But it has merely changed and appearance.
• The Ministry of Education has become the
the new slave master ruling over our schools.
• The urban schools are the new whites
• urban normally host the rich and affluent
• More resources are often allocated to these
• The rural school are the new blacks
• In most cases this is were the
poor attend. These are often less founded.
 Rural schools Compared to Urban
Schools
• The Pie-Chart show the
Top 100 Ranked schools in Jamaica
distribution of between
Rural areas and urban areas
across Jamaica.
• The majority of high 13%
Low proforming Rural
schools
High proforming Rural
preforming schools are schools
Low proforming urban
located in the urban areas 24%
56%
schools
High proforming urban

• And the majority of low schools

7%
preforming schools
located in the rural areas.
 UNICEF Article On Education in Jamaica
Challenges of Students
While Jamaica has made significant gains to promote access,
quality, relevance and equity in education, major gaps remain.
• Most children have access to publicly-funded education,
• but the effects of poverty lead to absence
• lack of progress, chronic under-performance
• failure to complete their education.
• This is particularly true for boys, and
for schools in low-income communities in rural.
• The Survey of Living Conditions lists Portland, St Thomas
and St Mary as parishes with deep rural poverty.
 Rural Schools Underperforming - NEI
Report
• The National Education Inspectorate (NEI) indicates that schools
located in the Kingston and St Andrew region
are far ahead of their counterparts in
other regions on eight key indicators which
were used to assess schools.
• The unquietly is wide spared take
• Transportation is also apart of the list
• Urban JUTC; rural bas and bad-roads
 References
2018 - 2019 Ranking Of High Schools In Jamaica. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/high_schools_in_jamaica.html
Eastern schools welcome Food For The Poor furniture donations. (2014, May 2). Retrieved from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20140502/news/news1.html
Jamaica Observer Limited, & Campbell, W. (2015, March 2). The doomed marriage of education and poverty. Retrieved from
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/The-doomed-marriage-of-education-and-poverty_18494862
Jamaica Observer Limited, & Walters, A. (2016, March 13). The merits of rural vs urban schooling.
Retrieved from http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/career/The-merits-of-rural-vs-urban-schooling_54284
Miller, E. (n.d.). EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN INDEPENDENT JAMAICA.
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Project, B., & Babb, S. B. (2019, September 25). Five Facts About Education in Jamaica. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/education-in-jamaica/
Ranking Of High Schools In Jamaica - Jamaica's Top Secondary Schools. (2018).
Retrieved from https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/ranking-of-high-schools-in-jamaica- jamaicas-top-secondary-schools.html
The Jamaican Gleaner. (2015, September 22). Rural schools underperforming - NEI report.
Retrieved from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150921/rural-schools-underperforming-nei-report
The Jamaican Gleaner. (2016, May 3). Rural underdevelopment strangling Hanover's schools.
Retrieved from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/western-focus/20160503/rural- underdevelopment-strangling-hanovers-schools
UNICEF, & Brown, A. (2019). Lifelong learning Our vision: Quality education for all children. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/jamaica/lifelong-learning
Winston Spence Foundation. (2015, November 27). History of Education in Jamaica. Retrieved from https://winstonspencefoundation.org/history-of-education-in-jamaica/
World Bank Mission. (2015, September 16). Jamaica Takes Big Steps Toward Improving its Educational System.
Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2015/09/16/jamaica-big-steps-improving-educational-system