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Students need support from all sectors.

Richard Hall, Contributor

Jamaica's 30-year National Plan must be vision-driven; leadership must be transformational; there must be full participation and buy-in from the people; and proper infrastructure must be put in place to develop, maintain, and continuously improve on this plan. The key component of the plan must be the complete overhaul of Jamaica's education philosophy. It is only through education that we will prepare our people to grasp greatness and continuously improve. The main goal must be 100 per cent literacy by 2015.

Values and attitudes

Training of teachers and students must focus foremost on what it means to be Jamaican, i.e. morals, values, attitudes. This foundation will ensure that the teacher/parent/student relationship is always focused on discipline, respect and commitment.

We must focus on training in math, science and engineering, as this is where the world is heading, and where we need to retain some comparative advantage, locally. More of our leaders must be engineers in order to be able to understand the forces looking to affect us and to apply certain principles of project management to solving our problems. All schools must be Internet- ready with wireless broadband. We need to look at re-engineering our school system to become more integrated and more efficient, for example, more Internet and TV training.

Infrastructure

The standard of new high schools must be improved and their capacities improved. This will reduce the strain on the traditional high schools and level the playing field for all children. Social services to schools must be improved and communities made to understand the direct link between their children's education and national development.

While I must admit that I have not read the education transformation documentation, my early impressions are that it centres on the development of new physical infrastructure. While this is necessary, a more important component must be the development of the education philosophy.

What is it that we want to achieve? Whom are we looking to produce? How does this tie into the national vision and plan? Again, we must go after the vision first before embarking upon an exercise for which no clear outcome is envisaged.

Singapore's education philosophy is clear and easily accessible. Education does two things; it develops the individual and educates the citizen.

Education is about nurturing the whole child. Indeed, this is the traditional Asian understanding of the term. Education means developing the child morally, intellectually, physically, socially and aesthetically.

Values

The foundation of a person is his values. From these spring his outlook on life and his goals in life. Together with the home, our schools have to work carefully and painstakingly to shape the morals of our children. Our children also have to learn to relate to other people - their elders and their peers - people who are like us and people who are different. Education also develops each child's unique talents and abilities to the full. Education teaches him to keep fit and healthy for life. And education teaches him to appreciate the finer things in life and the beauty of the world around him.

"An educated person is one responsible to himself, his family, and his friends."

But, all of us also see beyond ourselves, our family and our friends, and look towards society and nation. It is society at large, which gives us a sense of identity and purpose, security and confidence. In turn, we have obligations and responsibilities to the community. Therefore, our schools will teach our children to identify Singapore as our home; a home to live in, strive to improve, and defend.

"An educated person is also someone who is responsible to his community and country."

These two roles of education reinforce and complement each other. What we would all want to develop in each individual child overlaps with what we desire of every citizen.

The results after many years of following this philosophy are shown in the tables above.

Note:

1) No. Sat refers to school candidate who sat for GCE 'A' Level examination

2) % Passed refers to school candidates with at least two 'A' and two 'AO' level passes including GP

It is clear that we need to benchmark Singapore's education process and develop similar metrics which can be used to measure our success versus the effort and resources expended. We must become results-oriented and begin to demand that our children are in fact fully educated and not pretend that this is so.

If we are to compete, and become first world, we must change our current philosophy now!