Letter of the Day | Accountability in education cannot be optional

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The recently released CAPRI and UNICEF report, Room for Improvement: The Gap Between Public Spending and Child Outcomes in Jamaica, confirms what many Jamaicans have long feared: our education system is consuming significant public investment while failing to deliver commensurate outcomes.

Jamaica allocates roughly 16–17 per cent of government expenditure and about 5 per cent of GDP to education—levels comparable to some of the world’s top-performing systems. Yet students continue to leave school with serious literacy and numeracy deficiencies, and the country records just 7.1 years of effective learning out of an expected 11.4.

This is not merely disappointing; it is a national crisis.

The report also highlights that up to 86 per cent of education spending is absorbed by wages, leaving limited resources for maintenance, interventions, and classroom support. The issue is no longer funding—it is accountability, execution, and political will.

Both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) must accept responsibility for repeatedly retreating from meaningful reform. Too often, initiatives are diluted or abandoned in the face of resistance from entrenched interests within the sector.

That culture must end.

Jamaica cannot sustain an education system that spends billions without a performance-based accountability framework tied to student outcomes. The Patterson Report recognised this reality, calling for measurable accountability across teacher performance, school leadership, governance, and ministry oversight.

Performance-based reform is not an attack on teachers; it is essential to national development. Yet attempts to introduce standards, merit-based advancement, and productivity measures are frequently met with resistance.

While the Jamaica Teachers’ Association has opposed stronger performance frameworks, the broader failure lies with political leadership. Successive governments have prioritised industrial peace over structural reform, avoiding the confrontation necessary to modernise the system.

This is no longer sustainable.

If Jamaica is serious about achieving Vision 2030, education reform must move beyond rhetoric. The country needs measurable benchmarks, productivity-linked incentives, improved governance, stronger teacher support, and data-driven accountability.

Excellence must be rewarded, underperformance addressed, and student outcomes placed at the centre of policy.

The problem is clear. The question is whether Jamaica’s leaders have the courage to act.

Christopher McCurdy

School Board Chairman