Investing in the Children

One of the most glaring observations I made upon my return to Jamaica is that we, as a nation, lack the commitment to advance the educational needs of our youth. A what a guawn? So many of our pickney appear to be lost to hope, prospect, and spirit that will lead them to a better future. Many of our youth in Kingston, where I live, receive only 4 hours per day of educational instruction which then leads to many idle and wasted hours which inevitably lead to underachievement, frustration, violence, and political upheaval. Ignoring the needs of our youth has now become the paramount political problem of our time as youth gangs take over our communities.

On the other hand, reaching out to our youth and investing in them, becomes the cornerstone for future generations to achieve unprecedented educational objectives, the ability to adequately provide for their future families, and actively participate in the uplifting of our nation. There are communities across Jamaica where parents and local leaders are investing in children and benefiting. It still takes a village to raise a child.

I am appalled that overall, so little resources are being invested in the youth of Jamaica. It is an extremely competitive world. While our children attend school for only four hours per day, the norm in Japan is eight hours per day, six days per week. The excuse in Jamaica is that there are not enough funds to build schools and hire teachers to provide an adequate elementary education. As a result, the pass rate for the CXC and GCE are extremely low. We cannot be proud of that.

If the current government will not do better, can I recommend that our churches at least provide an alternative school system where volunteers will tutor our children for an additional 4 hours per day so our children can learn to play a musical instrument, increase their religious knowledge, learn geography, develop their skills in art, dancing, music, voice, golf, tennis, badminton, football, running, swimming, cricket, chess, card games, to read better, to write, to spell, learn computer related skills and to get them off the street? Jamaica has a lot of retired people who would love to do something substantial with their time. An opportunity to teach a child would be a very rewarding endeavour. If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance. What does it profit our country to have a workforce that is non-competitive in the world market?

Each day in the jungles of African, an antelope wakes up and know that if he is to survive another day, he must outrun the lion. The lion wakes up realizing that if he is to eat today, he must outrun the antelope. The world is a very competitive place; we must prepare our youth to prosper. We get used to the idea that our athletes are the best in the world. I would like to believe that we can also be the best in the world in all fields of human endeavour. We can be that good if we no linga.

Increased material output (productivity) means that our people will have access to both material goods, the culture we crave, with the luxury of time to create, invent, produce, and enrich our souls. Our gene-pool is probably the best in the world. With this dowry, the lynch pin for releasing that potential is the development of our youth. Their capacity should not be thwarted.