Crawford chides gov't for little improvement in education sector over 9 years

 

Opposition Spokesman on Education Senator Damion Crawford is holding firm to his position that there has been no satisfactory improvement in the sector during the nine years of the Andrew Holness-led administration.

 

Senator Crawford argues that intervention outcomes by the education ministry are not showing positive results, while identification of the challenges are limited. He says the belief that the Jamaica Teaching Council bill is the panacea of problems within the profession is evidence of a deficit-based approach to the sector.

 

"However, there is going to be absenteeism, it's at 22%. That is now a celebration of pre-COVID levels. Chronic absenteeism is suggested to be 10%. So we're double what is chronic absenteeism. When it comes to nutrition, we still have 66% of our Jamaican citizens facing food insecurity. That has not been satisfactorily addressed in the school system. 

 

"When you talk about parenting, availability of parents and capacity of parents, Jamaica has a 47% single parent experience. The global average is 17%. The regional average is 4%. All of those impact education. We still have students going into CXC now that have not received their rental books, so that is [an issue with] availability and accessibility to the tools of knowledge. So, no, I don't believe that satisfactory movement has been made to improve our education system," he complained. 

 

Senator Crawford, who was speaking Wednesday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica, was asked whether some of the concerns he raised, such as absenteeism and the attitude of parents, were broader cultural issues, which would be harder for the Ministry of Education to police.

 

"And that is the issue with how they're managing education because they're ignoring these broader issues. But even when you come to the more micro issues, for example, because...an absent student impacts education directly. A malnourished student impacts education directly. A student whose parent isn't involved impacts education directly," insisted the opposition spokesman.