World Bank: Post-secondary education in region fails to prep students for job market

Post-secondary education in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, continues to fail in adequately preparing students for the job market, a World Bank report on education transformation in the Caribbean has determined.

In the report titled Education in the Caribbean - Progress, Challenges and the Way Forward, the World Bank states that post-secondary education does not deliver the skills needed for the Caribbean labour market.

However, the report, quoting information from a 2023 report titled Post-Secondary Education and Skills in OECS Countries, states that there are difficulties in filling job openings because half the number of applicants lack the required skill level and qualifications.

Around 21 per cent of applicants also failed to secure jobs because they lack the required attitudes and soft skills, with 18 per cent lacking the relevant work experience.

Eight per cent of applicant’s conditions could not be matched by employer, while there were no applications for four per cent of jobs available.

The report states that the Caribbean region performs relatively well in terms of years of schooling but struggles significantly in learning outcomes. This is revealed through low harmonised test scores that suggest that students are not acquiring knowledge effectively, leading to a high learning loss.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

The report highlights four factors that are responsible for this situation, namely, that there is a mismatch between education and labour market needs; there is a gender imbalance, there is high-skilled emigration, and there is limited adoption of digital learning.

The report, compiled in 2023, used data from 2020.

Jamaica is familiar with high-skilled emigration that has affected the country’s workforce, especially in the areas of health and education.

Regarding education, in the first nine months of 2022, it is reported that more than 1,500 teachers migrated from Jamaica to work, mainly in the United States.

Although the trek is an annual undertaking, the figure represents one of the highest number of teachers leaving over such a relatively short period.

And while the country’s teachers’ colleges and universities keep producing teachers, the flight of the most experienced ones deeply impact the education system.

In terms of health, The Gleaner, in a March 2023 report, stated that 1,514 nurses resigned their positions in the public health system from 2019 to 2021, citing low pay and other reasons.

However, the report did not paint a picture of all doom and gloom for the region, with pockets of positive news being highlighted.

The Caribbean, it states, has achieved high pre-primary enrolment, but with notable variation across the region.

While enrolment rates in upper-secondary education increased, primary enrolment appears to have declined, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

It states that at least 10 per cent of students are not enrolled in school.

On the other hand, enrolment in tertiary education has remained quite low in most Caribbean countries, with the region also achieving virtual gender parity in enrolment rates.

However, there is an under-performance on foundational skills at the primary level, especially in math. Boys tend to struggle in English while, in math, there are poor results right across the board.

As primary school students move up to the secondary level, the performance deficits become even more pronounced, with a significant dip, once again, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Across the region, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reveals that performance on international assessments lags behind France-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) but is close or slightly above the Latin America average.

editorial@gleanerjm.com