JTA president presses for greater investment in education

 

President of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, Dr. Mark Smith, is pushing for greater strategic investment in education through the 'Go Public! Fund Education' campaign.

 

Dr. Smith says the initiative is a partnership with Education International and is aimed at mobilising public support for education.

 

"We believe that this is truly a game-changer in being able to galvanize support for education. It is so important in an era in which there is massive tectonic movements happening in the geopolitical space. It's important for Jamaica to really find our footing and I believe it is critical that we seriously look at the idea of strategic investment in human capital as a way to boost our economical development," he suggested.

 

He said the campaign also aims to get the political directorate involved to drive the much needed changes in the sector.

 

"Vision 2030 artfully espouses as the idea or the concept that we want to build up knowledge-based economy. But that doesn't happen by great rhetoric. What we have seen is that the rhetoric does not match the investments in education. Again, we're not talking about just throwing money at the problem. We're talking about strategic investments. It also requires private partnership with the public sector to get this done. Government alone can't achieve this."

 

Dr. Smith urged more private sector interests to come on board to essentially empower the workforce, adding that "the children of today are the workers of tomorrow".