Educators want decentralisation of Education Ministry

 

The Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) is calling for the decentralisation of the Ministry of Education in order to improve operational efficiency in the sector.

 

JAPSS President Linvern Wright says the Ministry of Education is overcentralised and should delegate some of its functions to its regional offices.

 

He argues that the ministry's regional offices are more than equipped with competent staff to take on some of the functions of the central office, adding that this will help to reduce bureaucracy within the system. 

 

"Our Ministry of Education has never had so many persons with PhDs and masters, never. But you don't get the impression that these people's ideas matter within the ministry. What seems to matter are a few people at the top and what they want," he contended. 

 

"What I believe would happen in an education system in a democracy is that people who have gone and studied and done their work about how to improve a system would get a chance to have their ideas work in the system and implemented in the system," reasoned Mr. Wright, who was a guest Wednesday on TVJ's All Angles.  

 

Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) President Leighton Johnson said regional offices currently lack adequate resources and personnel to attend to the needs of schools within their respective areas. 

 

"There is need for persons to man a desk, there is one building officer within a region to cover several schools, one building officer to procure infrastructure, to go in and do the necessary investigations for schools to get the buildings that they need. This is inadequate in a 21st century dispensation and we believe the regional offices must be empowered to take on some of the work that needs to be done," he said, citing the Rae Davis and Orlando Patterson reports which recommended decentralisation or reform in the establishment of the Education Ministry. 

 

Principal at Discovery Bay High School, Dwayne Mulgrave, believes the unwillingness to decentralise the Ministry of Education could be due to a trust deficit. 

 

"The regional offices, they will support what they need to support as requested from the schools, and it climbs a very tall ladder. And when it gets to the top of the ladder, somebody at the top does not approve, it is sent back down the ladder and it takes another year until it gets back to the top of the ladder. We need to give people the latitude to do things in the region," he urged. 

 

Mr. Mulgrave and Mr. Johnson were also guests on TVJ's All Angles.