A new government will soon be put into power. The political party that has been in power for the past 18 years have been pushed out of government by the powers of democracy. The people have spoken and the Jamaica Labour Party will be in power.
The JLP has promised free education at the secondary level for all. This move i must applaud. My view is that this cannot be a "bad" thing, in essence. More persons will be afforded the opportunity to go to school and as result, more children will have the basic education needed to have a chance to be successful in our society. I can't help but be reminded of my previous post though. And although my intention is not to taint the good that the JLP is intending, but effecting free education must come also with the frameworks to support such a system. I am unaware of any policies or changes in the delivery of education. What has been done to accommodate such a huge policy change? Are there enough places for these children, are there more teachers?

More importantly to me, is the fact that, even with more children being afforded the opportunity to go to school, my grievances with the education system still stands. I do not believe teachers are properly quipped at the early childhood level to turn out children who are ready to be "taught". The whole outlook on how early childhood is dealt with needs to be changed. Teachers in the primary and high schools also need more/better, more appropriate training. I am eager to see just how this New Education for all will pan out...I am hoping that for the good of my country, some thought and planning had been put into this mechanism.

Educational Policy I think falls short when we look at monitoring and evaluating. In simple terms, frameworks exist but nothing is being done to ensure that things go according to plan. Take the Task Force on Educational Reform (2004). One of the achievements which the author was rather proud to report was:
"The provision of a space in public primary level schools for every Jamaican child 6-11 years, as well as a space at the secondary level for more than 70% of children 12-16 years."
I am not sure I would be so quick to brag about such an "achievement". All children might be afforded a space at the primary level but if that space is not such that the child can benefit from it then what is the point. Schools are over crowded, grossly over crowded. What this leads to is an environment where children are not physically comfortable. There aren’t enough tables and chairs for all the children to utilize. To make matters worst there aren’t enough resources to go around; not enough books for children to use and definitely not enough teachers to attend to the amount of children placed within the schools. So this leads to is a school full of children who are not learning. How can there be no checks and balances for this sort of injustice? Children are at a disadvantage entering Public schools. There is no limit to the amount of children per teacher and no limit to the amount of resources per child. These children go to through the entire Primary School system knowing little or nothing. How does this even happen. I am sure they sit countless amounts of tests and examinations which they fail miserably. They are still allowed to progress to the next level. This cannot be acceptable. There needs to be a way to fix this problem. It cannot continue. Education is too important for this to be allowed to go on.