UTech President Emphasises need for Transformation of Education Sector

President of the University of Technology (UTech), Dr. Rae Davis has underscored the need for Jamaica to transform its education system, to make it world class, and fully responsive to the realities of the global community.
Giving the main address at a Teachers’ Day luncheon, held at the Old Port Antonio Marina in Portland on May 4, Dr. Davis said it was incumbent on the country to develop a world class education system, in order to remain relevant and competitive in a world which was constantly changing.
Dr. Davis, who is also Chairman of the National Task Force on Education, said that despite the strengths of the current system, there was need for fashioning a model, which was more appropriate to the country’s needs, and which would guarantee “our successful confrontation of the challenges with which we are faced as a nation”.
He explained that it was within that context that the National Task Force on Education was established, adding that it must be clearly understood that education has to be the vehicle through which Jamaica would achieve social and economic development.
The President pointed out that the report of the Task Force has concentrated on the early childhood, primary and secondary levels of the education process, and that a total of 116 recommendations had been made to correct the weaknesses plaguing the system.
He noted that while no one recommendation would, by itself, achieve the success anticipated, their combined application would guarantee the development of a desirable system to produce the excellence needed to put the country on the cutting edge of global competition.
Dr. Davis emphasised that all Jamaicans should support the initiatives to ensure that the ten-year transformation period resulted in the development of an educational system, better able to respond to the needs of Jamaica and its citizens.