Stakeholders Agree to a Shared National Vision for Education

Education stakeholders have agreed to a shared national vision for education in Jamaica, which will not only transform the learning process but result in education being the driver of growth and sustainable development.
This shared vision, which was reached after a series of islandwide consultations and presented by Education, Youth and Culture Minister, Maxine Henry Wilson at a meeting held recently at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, posits that each learner will maximize his/her potential in an enriching, learner-centered environment with maximum use of learning technologies and supported by committed, qualified, competent, effective and professional educators and staff.
Further, the education system will be equitable and accessible with full attendance to Grade 11. Accountability, transparency and performance will be the hallmarks of a system that is excellent, self-sustaining and resourceful, and welcomes full stakeholder participation.
In the end, the system will produce students that are fully literate and numerate and are globally competitive, and create a quality workforce and a disciplined, culturally aware and ethical Jamaican citizenry.
Having established the vision, the desired output is an educated Jamaican who will:
– Love to learn and will therefore be a lifelong learner, continuously developing wisdom and knowledge.
– Be well-rounded, agile of mind, able to adjust to different situations, responsible and able to make decisions.
– Speak an additional language and have at least the minimum requirements for tertiary education.
– Be a productive citizen-worker in charge of his or her personal economic advancement.
– Contribute to national development.
– Be socially aware and responsible; conscious of what is good for the society.
– Committed to sustainable lifestyle, spiritually conscious and mature.
– Tolerant of diversity and rooted in his or her Jamaican “s’maddiness”.
The Minister urged students at the function to take charge of their own wellbeing, as the acquisition of knowledge was not solely dependent on the administrator, rather, it was also the responsibility of the student.
“The country is spending money on your education, so even if the teacher is not passionate, there are so many sources of knowledge in the society. You need to take responsibility for your own education and not wait on the teachers”, she charged.
Minister Henry-Wilson also noted that one of the more significant aspects of the vision would see the education system finding means of bringing out the best in each child. “We want to ensure that we have a system that recognizes that people have different talents and abilities, which need to be treated differently and that is what we mean by each child can learn.each one must”, she added.
The next step in this strategic reform process involves the review by the Prime Minister’s 14-member Education Task Force, which has been mandated to effect drastic changes within the education system as early as September of this year.