Minister Highlights Importance of Education for All

Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness, says there is need for proper education for all citizens, as the challenges facing  the society, such as  a lack of respect for law, order and uniformity, are not a police problem, but an education problem.

He emphasised that the purpose of education is to inculcate compliance for order, rules and law, adding that until “we decide as a nation to solve the problems in the classroom, a police force with all its might will not change people’s propensity for disorder."

The Minister was speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for a new dormitory at Munro College in St. Elizabeth, on September 16.

“An educated society is never a lawless society, it is never a disorderly society and it is never a poor society,” Mr. Holness argued.

The Minister said that although there is a place in a democratic society for individual expressions,  and for the country to be inclusive in embracing all styles and ways of doing things, “we must never retreat from that place of order, law and discipline."

“It is the schools that will ensure that there is order in our society,” Mr. Holness stressed.

He noted that there is a challenge to find the requisite money to bring the education system to its ultimate level, adding that it is  time for more partnerships to be established between the Government and the private sector to move the system forward.

Pointing out that most, if not all, of the traditional high school across Jamaica were established through  public/private partnerships, the Minister said that in the last 50 years there has not been a great deal of collaboration in that way.

He said there is now a need to generate a new kind of thinking, while stimulating new interest in the nation’s philanthropic and private sectors towards building new schools.

The new dormitory, which should be completed in time for the  new school year in September 2012,  will accommodate approximately 200 students. A budget of  $94 million has been  allocated  for the project.

By Bryan Miller, JIS Reporter