Ronald Thwaites | Self delusion is slow suicide

At more than one of the high schools I observe carefully, the a number of the entering students are scored as “Proficient” in Language Arts in their Primary Exit Profile  results. But when they are tested on entry to Grade 7, on average, they are reading at Grade 3 or 4 levels. 
This means they cannot cope with normal secondary school subjects without persistent intervention which teachers and schools are not equipped to provide. Of course the situation is worse for those thousands who are rated as “Developing”.  They all get promoted notwithstanding. 
What are students classified as “beginners” doing in high school anyway?  Justice and common sense require that they are offered remediation for at least another year at the primary level.
Those deemed “Highly Proficient” are the only ones really ready to soar. By dumbing down our standards, we are colting our own prospects for integral development.
So that a shallow political victory can be scored and more self-delusion encouraged, we exult that nine out of ten students were placed at a school of their choice. For most that means settling for one at, or near, the last of the seven options which every candidate is required to put forward.
CRUELTY
It is national delusion to think that Jamaica can prosper without radical reform of early childhood and primary education. At a granular level we escalate this situation to cruel stupidity when we continue to promote illiterate children to higher grades when they have not achieved the required standards of the previous academic year. 
We are doing that again right now, this very month, as we splurge on graduation rituals, most often without commensurate achievements.
GHANA’S MOVE 
Speaking of which, note the news that in Ghana, these school leaving ceremonies have been suspended because of the unchecked extravagance of schools, parents and students. 
As disappointing as that move is, it is important that the authorities appreciate the distinction between poppy-show and substance; between modestly celebrating the real achievements of  school life in place of the phony big-ups we lavish on ourselves.
Were we not similarly addicted to posing, the political class ought to set a better tone for the kids.
We spend billions on show-off at this time of year. Encouraging dispirited young people is good. Evading reality is not. One of the worst crime scenes in Jamaica last week was the news that at Maggotty High School,  50 per cent of their senior class have been missing from school. To a similar extent, heavy absenteeism is the experience of hundreds of schools.
Social and economic destruction is inevitable as a result. Such a situation demands nothing short of a state of emergency. Truant officers and social workers should be deployed to bring back every absentee to the classroom.
EVASION
Instead we evade the crisis until there is further deterioration and frustration of these young Jamaicans. Then we bemoan the under-productivity among the best of them, lock up, or more likely kill, the remainder. All the while fooling ourselves that we are stanching crime and building a righteous society, fit and ready to welcome diaspora investment.  
We are doing pity-mi-little to fix this major cause  of our national distemper while rushing to admit  foreign deportees and ‘kin’ up’ to Massa. Don’t we remember? No matter how house slaves tried to become ingratiated  in the great house, even to the extent of whoring themselves, they could never be equal, always liable to be bought and sold. Our leaders and our personal numbness of conscience are twisting us to become  Orlando Patterson’s Children of Sisyphus. 
IMPORTED LABOUR
Last week our rulers told us that Jamaica will have to import talent for the sake of economic growth. Sure, that’s good in very limited areas and  always on condition of technology transfer to locals. But isn’t the deficit of trained talent an indictment on our education system? Where is the labour Market analysis supporting the skill gaps and the plan to alleviate them  with our own people? 
And if we are short of trained workers why kick out so-far irreplaceable Cuban skills and ‘tek set’ against Chinese presence?  Didn’t we hear the explicit agenda of the incoming ambassador? Are we OK  with that? At which election did we vote to cede the choice of our national interests to anyone else? Isn’t that why deRoulet and Estrada had to go?  
Public policy continues to deal with outcomes rather than causal factors.  Domestic violence and cruelty to children (the two are closely related) cause outrage and cries for revenge. Who is asking why these crimes take place?  
Where do we teach our people about the sacredness of every human person and the inviolability of the body made in the image and likeness of God? The health and family life curriculum in schools is amoral and inadequate. 
RELATIONSHIPS COUNT
Life in Jamaica is becoming more and more transactional instead of relational. The young people in my high school have little experience of loving, committed relationships in their homes and communities. Superficiality and domination, connection based on poverty rather than affection, dominate. 
In different ways but with similar outcomes, we discourage strong familial and friendship ties in much the same manner as did slave society. The gang becomes the substitute for meaningful relationships and sometimes survival. 
Look at the schools as every day we dish out 3 day and 10 day suspensions.  Does that work? How about teaching ethics alongside literacy and numeracy? Savage interdiction seems embedded in our DNA.
Listen to the dry, unconvincing statistics spewing from official sources. Soon they will tell us that we have no crime, no unemployment and no illiteracy.
“You treat human lives like disposable digits on a spreadsheet; reduce human rights to  statistics which stroke your political egos” (Noam Chomsky)
Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.