Editorial | Opportunity in Damion Crawford’s case

Damion Crawford’s lawsuit claiming that Jamaica is in breach of its constitutional mandate of providing free pre-primary and primary education to the island’s children will open a new front in the debate on the inadequacies of a national education system that is universally accepted to be in deep crisis. 

But while the court may agree with Mr Crawford that the Government has failed, or its failing, to fulfill its obligation, it is unlikely that a panel of judges will lay out policy prescriptions to a government or appoint supervisors to oversee their implementation.  This is not quite as if, say, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) were to be instructed to do something to improve prisoners’ welfare and someone was appointed to track and report on the effort.  Education policy, and the outcomes therefrom, is an altogether different kettle of fish.

Which is why The Gleaner’s Editorial Board again calls for a full and serious debate on the Patterson Commission report as well as for a halt to the implementation of its recommendations - except those involving technological upgrades or on which there was clear pre-Patterson consensus - until there is clarity on what is being implemented, their deliverables, and the timeframe within which their projected outcomes will be apparent.  Frankly, the current implementation programme seems more a box-ticking process rather than an exercise to achieve Patterson’s intention: the transformation of the education system.  The Patterson Commission was chaired by the Jamaica-born, Harvard University sociology professor Orlando Patterson.

Given that context, the Patterson Report, as well as a World Bank/UNICEF parallel analysis of Jamaica’s education expenditure, should be retabled in Parliament and referred to a special committee for robust review, including invitations for submissions by stakeholders.

Indeed, too little serious debate was elicited by the authorities at the time of the Patterson report’s publication nearly four years ago. Moreover, given the rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, many with implications for education and training, some of Patterson's recommendations may well be suffering from obsolescence and are in need of updating.

Jamaica’s Constitution, under a 2011 amendment that introduced a Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, makes free access to pre-secondary level education a fundamental right.

It says at Section 13 (3)(k) (ii) that every child who is a citizen of Jamaica has a right “to publicly funded tuition in a publicly funded educational institution at the pre-primary and primary levels”.

Mr Crawford, the shadow education minister, insists that this promise is not aspirational and a clear and firm commitment, from which the Government, its claims to the contrary notwithstanding, is far from achieving   in terms of access, quality, and outcomes.

In a parliamentary debate a fortnight ago, Mr Crawford used the 2022 World Bank/UNICEF analysis to argue his case, highlighting that report’s damning findings on Jamaica’s education outcomes as well as its recommendation of resource rebalancing in favour of the early childhood sector.

At 5.2 per cent of GDP (critics say that this distorts the actual amount of money comparators spend on students), Jamaica is on par with selected regional and international peers with respect to its education spend. Outcomes, however, lag far behind, impeding the island’s “human capital accumulation”.

It said: “According to the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), a child born in Jamaica today will be 53 percent as productive when they grow up as they could be if they enjoyed complete education and full health … The low level of human capital can mainly be explained by the low quality of education: in Jamaica, a child who starts school at age 4 can expect to complete 11.4 years of schooling by her 18th birthday, but this represents the equivalent of only 7.1 Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS).”

While the World Bank/UNICEF analysis characterised the Government’s education spend on early childhood education as “pro-poor”, the system, primarily community-operated basic schools and private kindergartens, received a “low share” of educational expenditure compared to international peers. In fact, early childhood and pre-primary education is mostly financed “through tuition fees and non-government support”. 

Largely, these institutions meet only the Government’s minimum requirements to operate. Indeed, in 2021, “only a small fraction of basic schools … (were) fully certified by the Early Childhood Commission, meeting all standards for a quality education”.

Several reports have noted the ill-preparedness of large swathes of children entering primary school, which Mr Crawford claimed had hardly improved, and in some cases, have grown worse since the document was prepared. 

Although the spending analysis didn’t focus as heavily on expenditure and outcomes in the primary education sector, performances there have long caused deep concern. Each year, approximately a third of primary students complete Grade 6 and head for high school without being fully literate.  Additionally, over 40 per cent don’t meet the requirements for mastery at their age and grade levels in maths. Around seven per cent need substantial interventions to catch up.

The poor performance continues in secondary school, where only a fifth of Jamaican students pass five subjects, inclusive of maths and English, at single sittings of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams. Passes in five subjects are considered the minimum for matriculation to higher education.

The Constitutional Court will have a deeply complex matter on its plate, which the justices may be tempted to punt. Prime Minister Andrew Holness, a former education minister, understands these complexities and has the power to cut through them.

Damion Crawford's lawsuit provides the prime minister an opportunity to push past the frictions, open a genuine conversation, and lead a national mobilisation to finally fix education.