Dear Editor,
I read the recent piece by attorney-at-law Linton P Gordon, 'The future is technology in the hands of our youth', and wish to highlight these interesting observations made by him in the Thursday, July 23, 2015 edition of the Daily Observer.
We are very good at using what the Chinese, South Koreans and other countries have invented and marketed. As a people we have to ask ourselves which of these gadgets we have developed and which have the "Made in Jamaica" label?
Assume that we were to go for the 1-20 pupil-teacher ratios, how many more teachers would we need? How many more classrooms, how many more labs? And, at what cost? Who would fund this expansion in education?
The schools that are to be closed are a result of shifts in population and declining birth rates. Are they to be kept open until a school which now has 10 teachers to 100 students move to 10 teachers to 50 students?
To a large extent we sometimes refuse to think and be analytical. We just "talk and talk". We have not developed a culture of mathematics and science as being the norm in education. Many of the limited number of mathematics and science teachers we produce either migrate or go into the private sector. How do we stem the migration, or the move to the Jamaican private sector, of these skills without substantial investments in funding and technology? As always the elephant in the room is the source of sustained funding over the next 20 years.
Overall, do we have the commitment to the growth and development of Jamaica, individually and collectively, or is it the Government that nebulous entity which must provide everything while we sit and talk endlessly as to what should be done.
Do we as a people have a concept of the following Jamaican situation?
* The level of the debt
* The level of expenditure necessary by the Government on a monthly basis, and what is possible
* The sources of funds
* Exploring what is possible in a country with a population of 2.7 million, with more than half of the working age population not employed in structured valued sectors
* Approximately 80 per cent of the education and health budgets respectfully are for employee compensation. What services can be provided to the populace in those scenarios?
* There is a chorus for debt write-off and or debt forgiveness. With a substantial amount of the debt being domestic, including pension funds invested in Government bonds, to what extent will current and future pensioners be affected by such write-offs if this was to be implemented?
Dr Horace A Williams
Management Consultant/Senior Lecturer
williebo@cwjamaica.com
Our future depends on much
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I read the recent piece by attorney-at-law Linton P Gordon, 'The future is technology in the hands of our youth', and wish to highlight these interesting observations made by him in the Thursday, July 23, 2015 edition of the Daily Observer.
We are very good at using what the Chinese, South Koreans and other countries have invented and marketed. As a people we have to ask ourselves which of these gadgets we have developed and which have the "Made in Jamaica" label?
Assume that we were to go for the 1-20 pupil-teacher ratios, how many more teachers would we need? How many more classrooms, how many more labs? And, at what cost? Who would fund this expansion in education?
The schools that are to be closed are a result of shifts in population and declining birth rates. Are they to be kept open until a school which now has 10 teachers to 100 students move to 10 teachers to 50 students?
To a large extent we sometimes refuse to think and be analytical. We just "talk and talk". We have not developed a culture of mathematics and science as being the norm in education. Many of the limited number of mathematics and science teachers we produce either migrate or go into the private sector. How do we stem the migration, or the move to the Jamaican private sector, of these skills without substantial investments in funding and technology? As always the elephant in the room is the source of sustained funding over the next 20 years.
Overall, do we have the commitment to the growth and development of Jamaica, individually and collectively, or is it the Government that nebulous entity which must provide everything while we sit and talk endlessly as to what should be done.
Do we as a people have a concept of the following Jamaican situation?
* The level of the debt
* The level of expenditure necessary by the Government on a monthly basis, and what is possible
* The sources of funds
* Exploring what is possible in a country with a population of 2.7 million, with more than half of the working age population not employed in structured valued sectors
* Approximately 80 per cent of the education and health budgets respectfully are for employee compensation. What services can be provided to the populace in those scenarios?
* There is a chorus for debt write-off and or debt forgiveness. With a substantial amount of the debt being domestic, including pension funds invested in Government bonds, to what extent will current and future pensioners be affected by such write-offs if this was to be implemented?
Dr Horace A Williams
Management Consultant/Senior Lecturer
williebo@cwjamaica.com
Our future depends on much
-->