Orville W. Taylor MORE DISASTROUS news on education again! Recently, Dr. Dennis Minott and Dr. Ralph Thompson painted a sad picture of the performance of our youth in the CXC examinations.
They say that when doctors argue, patients die. Well, indeed my 'patience' is dead, and since yours truly is another 'Doctor' then I must call out my undertaker cousin. Let's cut to the chase. There are two reasons for the mockery of educational performance highlighted by these two sages.
First, there is a historical explanation based on our experiences over the past century and a half since most of us left the plantation. The second, a more obvious one, lies in contemporary events and processes.
In the post-emancipation period there was no cohesive educational policy for the proper uplift of the ex-slaves even though there were institutions such as Wolmer's and later St. George's College, founded as elitist entities.
Thus, the tradition of excellence that such schools had espoused and maintained for the better part of the post-colonial period was in spite of the system rather than a reflection of it. What emerged after slavery was a mechanism for the maintenance of the structural inequalities in plantation society.
DUAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
A dual educational system was established that channelled the elite in 'traditional high' schools and the lower strata into inferior educational institutions. Initiated in the 1950s purportedly to make secondary education more available, the misnomered 'Common Entrance Examination' was never 'common' and gave very little 'entrance' into high schools.
In 1963, the decision was made to give 70 per cent of high school places to primary schools and the other 30 to prep schools. Yet, no-one realised that the true distribution was more like 95 to five.
Furthermore, whosoever's idea it was, all-age schools should never have been created, neither should anyone have even thought about (junior) secondary schools which, until recently, were not oriented towards a university path.
Then again, even in the high schools much of the curriculum was originally oriented towards Eurocentric elitism and not local reality.
Thus, in high school I learnt stuff about the history of the church and read the classics in English literature but little about Africa. Even with a 'good education', we (non-whites) were more geared towards a foreign mentality and an implicit self-hatred. By the way what had happened to 'civics.' No! not 'Tiszic', that is a form of asthma. To the credit of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the development of HEART was a recognition of the gaps in the educational system and it is reaping some success.
Now for contemporary problems. Two sets of things have occurred over the past few decades. First, the upgrading of the 'inferior' schools and second, the corresponding advent of GSAT, providing a larger number of places for an increasing proportion of the 11 to 12 cohort.
Benightedly, educators argue that they are getting lower quality students. OK, but what is happening at the primary level to make them sub-standard? Truth is, the primary system must cease producing mostly the chaff.
CULTURE OF UNDERACHIEVEMENT
Apart from the poorer facilities than prep schools, there is a lingering culture of underachievement from the colonial period. In the milieu of primary school children, there are consistent messages such as, 'All you! You soon tun gunman! An' yu soon breed!'
While the statistics relating to the relationship between social background and educational achievement justify the stereotype, a large part of the problem regarding low performances lies in children living up to these expectations. As far back as 1976 Sherry Keith discovered this in our schools.
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Well... the boys played brilliantly. Pity they failed. Oh! I mean, the St. George's Manning Cup team not 'Pizzaroni's Boyz.' Carl Brown could only have done better. Gol' jerseys, gol' balls and the USA's staff wore gold as well. Yet, the final 'gol' couldn't come. Perhaps they should have worn the black since our hopes died there.
Now we can find the 'third' million for the statue of our greatest athlete ever, from not having to pay the coach. Of course a 'bronze' monument is ideal for Merlene. "Honour har yes!" The 2000 Olympics controversy regarding the usurping of Peta-Gaye 'Dowtful' was poorly managed and Beverly McDonald, not her, should have been excluded from the 100 metres. Merlene showed she deserved the place by coming fourth in the finals.
DEBATE ON HOMOSEXUALITY
Finally, although I hate being 'dragged back' into the bowels of the debate I must advise Human Rights Watch (HRW) that Jamaica is not part of the United States. There, the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas effectively rendered the anti-sodomy laws in Texas, Florida and 11 other states unconstitutional. If America had jurisdiction here they would have let us win on Wednesday. Since HRW can't convince its own president that homosexuality is 'normal', 'a we dem have strengt' fa?' In any event, that case reversed the 1986 ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick that homosexuals have no right to privacy.
There is no question of a person's right to privacy in Jamaica. What is more private than sex? In male homosexual encounters it is so private that it often occurs out of the sight of one of the participants.
However, popular sentiment, despite Delroy Chuck's opinion, is that it should not be legalised. Does this make us barbaric? Far more Jamaicans feel that the use of marijuana should be de-criminalised and we don't hear HRW saying that the Government is 'Rasta-phobic.'
Still, given the general consensus of the majority in this country, you can bet your 'bottom dollar' that no government, including Chuck's JLP, will legalise homosexuality in this lifetime.
Dr. Orville W. Taylor is lecturer
in the department of sociology,
psychology and social work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
