Educational Coaching

Over the past week the quality of education has taken center stage in the Jamaican media, with the Minister, Andrew Holness chiding elementary/ primary school teachers for the general ill-preparedness of students for secondary schools.This news comes at the dawn of Jamaica’s presentation of a status report on its achievements towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

MDGs

The Minister’s chiding must come as a surprise to many educators and Jamaicans generally, who have been convinced since the 1980s, when I was a child and growing up, that our education system was superior to even the US. I grew up thinking that there was nowhere around the world where I could get better–a long standing misconception stimulated by the so-called universal elementary access. That was such a Big joke that almost 30 years later we are caught running with our tails between our legs and the dear Minister scrambling to modernize the system that has doomed so many youth.

Before proceeding with my article, I feel it important to articulate my background in education, as it will help you to better understand where my views on this matter are coming from. I am a third generation educator, sprung from a grand mother, mother and aunts who are trained and practiced Jamaican educators. Aside from Jamaica’s so-called universal access, I have always been (un)fortunate to have a household of educators whose interest was tied up with me believing the fabled best quality education. It did not take me long to unravel the myth–as soon as I commenced secondary level education I began to see more clearly–educational success was for the socially privileged, and many of us who dared to make ourselves an anomaly by being too bright, faced the humiliation of teachers  or the lack of will from our parents.

I always wondered why my mother never attempted to help me with maths–”I never went to high school,” “I didn’t do CXC,” she would say. Let me tell you, it was disappointing to hear my mother give these excuses–after all, I was a child who was half her age, with no experience other than primary school and I was able to clear the ominous mathematical clouds, yet she, with her experience preparing youth up to grade six could not help me to figure it out. I was not fearful of calling her mediocre, a label which I gave to many other teachers I later encountered.

So you can imagine that the latest move by the new Minister, in chiding educators, came like music to my ears. “Finally,” I said, “someone at policy level has begun to see more clearly.” But, on closer scrutiny, I realized that the Minister wants to see significant improvements in the education system, while ignoring the need for wider social changes. From the Minister’s statements, captured across the print and electronic media, he espouses that schools, although miniatures of the society, should not reflect its ills. They should therefore be exemplary– a lighthouse in a foggy dawn. Schools are therefore miniatures of what our society ought to be.

Social Stratification

At a press conference at Jessie Rippol Primary, the Minister proposed that those students who are not found to be academically inclined should be placed in schools to promote skills development. This functionalist sees social stratification as normal and natural, modernizing it as a means for ensuring that ‘the most talented and able members of society are allocated to those positions that are functionally most important for our society.’ Education is then the ‘providing ground for ability and hence the selective agency for placing people in different statuses according to their capacities.’ (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000).

Despite the need to keep stratification in tact, the Minister has a desire to reflect the liberal ideals of a progressive education system, which serves the needs of the people and fulfill the expectations of a modern democracy, especially under the watchful eye of the UN. For me it’s like playing with a three card man–there’s no way to win, as a progressive education system is the antithesis of social stratification, which the Minister will retain with his proposed screening system. A word of mouth liberal and die hard functionalist, his arguments are indicative of an ideal in which schools function like the future society–the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business, and where all the social classes accept and are satisfied with where they are placed.

While the Minister acknowledges, through his delivery of Grades F to various schools, that the hidden curriculum contributes to failings, he does not seek to examine the hidden curriculum as something that is functional to society–a covert contract handed down from the society to maintain stratification and the status quo. He proposes that we execute individual assessment of schools and teachers, which inevitably labels them the culprits of failure, rather than the society that infiltrated and intimidated them with its own hidden code on the treatment of people of specific social classes.

I therefore extend a word of caution to the Minister–the whole is the sum of its parts. The education system is merely one part of the whole, which reflects and maintains all the ills that exist within our society–class and colour prejudice and priviliging, abuse, crime and violence, self-hate and skin bleaching, and expectations of failure. To change the education system we must change our society, because it is the whole that influences its parts. We therefore need a multisectoral approach involving private, public, and community entities that are committed to and supportive of wider social changes.

If the community residents and leaders cannot access their Parish Council, which was created to lead parish and local development, then how can we guarantee the realization of our fundamental rights and freedoms as citizens?  The lack of realization of one right inhibits the ability to realize others, as such residents who are affected by bad roads, crime, poor transportation, limited food, and inadequate shelter are unable to live in full human dignity. If we are to realize the MDGs, Parish Councils and citizens must work together and respect each other!

In October 2008, internal and external leaders of Albion in St. Thomas (Jamaica) were mobilized to my Advocacy Planning Workshop (APW) to discuss critical issues to be addressed by community-based organizations (CBOs) as they prepared themselves for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Key among the items were the need to: Acquire land for the development of a community center and multipurpose sporting complex; Improve police patrols in order to curtail the rise in petty crimes (break-ins and theft); Resurface roads; Bush empty lots; Control the development of informal settlements in adjoining areas; Control land erosion and flooding from Cow Bay; and Fence the pump house that supplies water to the community.

Mr. Ishmael Robertson, who represented the Member of Parliament, Hon. James Robertson, his son, articulated that the Secretary Manager of the St. Thomas Parish Council had portfolio responsibility for addressing the majority of the issues raised. He lamented the absence of that office and advised leaders to write a letter to them expressing extreme disappointment and the need for a meeting to address the issues raised.

From my experience on the Social and Economic Justice (SEJ) Project, I have not seen the Secretary Manger or any other representative of that office make an effective attempt to participate in or address issues of community development. I have worked in four unique communities: Albion Mountain, Albion, Morant Bay, and Springfield, and not once have they responded to our invitation to meet the leaders of the community and work with them in changing experiences of injustice.

I stole this little time from my sleep to post the the Youth Declaration on HIV Prevention (draft). This tool will be used to drum up support for HIV Prevention services for young Jamaicans, which is a First. Jamaica Family Planning Association is the host agency of advocacy for HIV Prevention for Jamaican Youth. It has taken seriously the need to meet the Millennium Development Goal of combating HIV/AIDS. Two of the three indicators of this goal are the prevalence amongst pregnant girls and young women 15-24 years and the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS–isn’t it clear then that HIV is now a youth disease.

Jamaicans are resistant to youth getting information about HIV, because of fears of that their empowerment will lead to bravery to engage in sex. I say to all Jamaicans, “hiding children from information won’t protect them from harm, it will only make them vulnerable to harm, as they won’t be knowledgeable enough to make the right choices.

Support improved HIV Prevention services for Jamaican Youth by joining our Facebook Cause and Group.

Call me an Obamacan if you desire, but I am wholly sold on web 2.0 in politics. It centralises discourse and peoples’ voices in the decision-making process. I started a cause (http://apps.new.facebook.com/causes/103179) and a group (http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19821032898) on Facebook and believe me the interactivity it affords me with people who care about the same things as I and the opportunities that it provides for Jamaicans and people around the world to support my advocacy initiatives are marvelous. I can’t wait for the day when I am able to link my Member of Parliament or Prime Minister personally, through their Facebook profile and utilise an up-to-the-mark web 2.0 platform.

The JLP launched their web 2.0 platform less than a month ago, but I am here to report that it is still a display-centric platform, more like web 1.0–there is no actual link to a Facebook profile, page, cause, group, etc. just the logo; the myspace link is dead; flickr loaded, but where are the tags, slide shows, and animations to stimulate commentary? There is no actual link to Gallery2. The YouTube link is live though!

Kodak bigged-up the JLP for its new web 2.0 platform, but I say, “Kodak, while I share your enthusiasm for an Obama type of politik, I am not so sure the JLP is there yet. They demonstrate, through the layout of the site, a good plan for politicising web 2.0 in Jamaica, and I applaud them for that effort, but they are just not there yet. Where is the chatroom? Come on guys! A comment is not the same a blog, blogs take research, time, thought, and effort. Maybe its a micro-blog, but it doesn’t borrow from the twitter model! It seems like commentary to me.

Can someone please dedicate some time to this site and make it truly web 2.0 compatible, otherwise leave it to the professionals. Check out the JLP’s site… http://www.jamaicalabourparty.com/