Producing Professionals for Jamaica

Developing More Professionals for Jamaica
Basil Waine Kong

An African proverb suggest that if fathers want to nurture healthy, happy, considerate and contributing children, tend to their mother’s happiness. African Americans added: “If mama is not happy, no one is happy.” A further extension of that would suggest that to produce highly skilled professionals who chose to live and work in Jamaica, we need good role models.

Unfortunately, the brain drain to developed countries, the lack of role models, the indoctrination of children that they should prepare themselves for low paying jobs and most importantly, the lack of will on the part of political leaders to provide the resources to develop this important resource all work together to stifle and maybe even choke off the opportunity for our very gifted children from achieving their potential as professionals.

A cultivator who plants his seeds in fertile soil, expose the plants to the sun, remove unwanted weeds and made sure his vegetables receive adequate water, will be assured of a bountiful harvest. On the other hand, a planter who sows his seeds in rocky barren soil and neglects his crop will starve. But, not all the seeds of the conscientious farmer will bear fruit and not all the seeds from the neglected field will go to waste. There will always be the exceptional students who flourish in a barren land or perish in the land of plenty.

And yet we rise. Through serendipity, pure grit and perseverance, highly gifted and able professionals emerge from the most devastating circumstances in Jamaica. The song, “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem” brings to mind, flowers blooming in slums, trees growing in rocks as well as a clean, groomed well dressed little girls and boys leaving shacks on their way to church on the Sabbath.

As we contemplate the elements of successfully producing gifted and highly trained professionals, we need to consider that there are some thirty “golf schools” in the United States. In other words, instead of a regular high school, gifted and wealthy students attend these special high schools where they live and breathe golf in addition to their academic subjects. They receive coaching, play golf every day and hone their skills, knowledge and attitude. Yet, no graduate from these programs have ever won a major tournament. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, was coached by his father and won them all.

Jamaica, by all our standard measures, is a low resource country with high unemployment, low income, and substandard infrastructure. How is it then possible that we excel at every field of human endeavour? Symbolically, who can explain why the fastest and second fastest human being that ever lived hale from Jamaica and that Jamaicans won more gold medals at the Olympic Games than India and the entire South America combined? Great writers, poets, scientists, political leaders, musicians and professionals from every specialty were born in Jamaica. The question then is not why Jamaica cannot produce gifted, ethical and effective professionals but whether we can produce more---a lot more.

The English ideal was for their citizens to be “Healthy, wealthy and wise”. It is not by accident that health always takes centre stage in any contemplation of the elements of success. Sick and hungry students do not learn as fast and fall behind. Physical handicaps limit participation in the activities of daily living and school performance. But it is probably even more important to contemplate the health of parents and grandparents. Children need good teachers, access to the Internet, guidance and support for their daily needs.

Jamaican professionals migrating to the United States, Canada and Europe deplete our intellectual resources and widen the inequities between Jamaica and the developed countries where many of our intellectuals reside. The loss of nurses, doctors, engineers and pharmacists is particularly extreme. While these individuals benefit and relatives receive financial remittances, as well as improved training and professional networks that will aid future trainees, the loss to Jamaica is high. We invest a lot in their training and we do not benefit from their skills. It is also a significant brain waste when expatriate professionals move to developed countries working in non-professional employment for higher pay than they could earn working as professionals in Jamaica.

Sociologist Jonathan Crane observed that it only takes a very few role models to have a good effect on a community. But without a critical mass of positive role models, a community will predictably “tip” very quickly in a bad direction under the influence of bad role models.

Many of our children are guilty of low aim. The indoctrination of children that they should prepare themselves for low paying jobs is insidious in our educational system. I am appalled that one third of our population cannot do basic reading, writing and arithmetic.

Jamaica must stop promoting a model of dependency on developed countries. We must work together to develop the infrastructure that will make it attractive for home grown professionals to invest in Jamaica and future generations of Jamaicans. We must start with the political will to improve our public health, improve our educational system, reduce the brain drain as well as not frustrate the ambitions of our youth. We can do this!