‘Five in four’: Full STEAM ahead

Generations of Jamaicans have been held at economic siege as a consequence of our wholesale engagement in an exotic education system and philosophy. I speak of a post-colonial system of education designed to stratify rather than empower. Most Jamaicans would agree that increasing access to the economy and the correlated expansion of equity are among the primary aims of any education system worth its salt. On the contrary, the National Educational Inspectorate Report of September 2015 tells us that affording Jamaicans’ increasing access to the economy and expanding social equality is nothing near what the system is delivering. In fact, of the 973 public primary and secondary schools surveyed, 52 per cent were deemed unsatisfactory in relation to student success.

Through the aegis of the Economic Growth Council we are now embarking on an ambitious growth target with the catchy phrase “five in four”. Even the convener of the council thinks this will be a challenge; just how challenging is part of what I would like to share with him.

Among the needs identified by the Economic Growth Council is that of the education system needing to deploy 3,000 software engineers into the workforce by 2019. How will this happen when over 85 per cent of the 11th grade cohort does not take any of the main science subjects? There are approximately 50,000 new Jamaicans born in this country each year. We are told that this number is significantly declining as Jamaica’s highly effective “two is better that too many” campaign takes effect. How will we get these 3.000 engineers when only about 7,000 or so Jamaicans gain Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects each year and, of these, 85 per cent do not sit a single science subject?

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/-8216-five-in-four-8217-full-steam-ahead_113563