The Intersection of Gender, Culture and Education: Jamaica: The Next 50 Years!

Many students particularly teenagers have invested many hours studying, some of this time is done in study groups in an effort to be successful in their examinations. Numerous parents and guardians have also invested heavily in their child’s or children welfare, whether it’s in the form of tuition or school fees, lunch money, examination fees, food, shelter and clothing.   Like any relationship trust and communication are very important, the parent child relationship is no different. Adolescence is that phase of life between childhood and adulthood. It is usually characterized by a period of exploitation and opportunity. For many teenagers this is a most appropriate time to deceive their parents about the need to study. Most of us have been there? Have you ever told your parent a fib? If you are honest you would have answered ‘Yes’.   Many parents have a soft heart once their child comes to them with a story about studying whether at a public place such as the ...

Recently the society was shocked to its core by a number of disturbing incidents which have reinforced and highlighted the sad state of affairs of the nation’s children, the plight of our women and the elderly. In the first instance a fifteen year old boy who has been a ward of the state since the age of eight was repeatedly raped, beaten and verbally abused by older boys in at least seven children’s home he has lived. Additionally, the youngster reported that he has been verbally abused by employees at the various place of safety he has lived. The fact that he is a ward of the state should not subject him to being sexually and verbally abused. This is a national disgrace! We need to ask ourselves how many more boys and girls too have suffered similar fates in our places of (danger) since it is very clear no safety is guaranteed in such institutions.   Equally disturbing was the response from the state agency in response to the boy’s frequent incidence of absconding from...

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Our parliamentarians over the years have refused to address the issue of constitutional reform. However, the time has come for civil society to demand more representation from those who choose to serve in this capacity. It is no longer sufficient for our elected parliamentarians to have only a constituency office in their respective area where constituents may meet with them at scheduled times. While each person has the right to choose where he/she lives, the primary residence of those who sit in Gordon House should be among the people they represent without any exception. This amendment should be enshrined in the Constitution. Each consistency is unique and as a result each constituency has specials needs that must and should be addressed by the elected officials. For example, our parliamentarians should be exposed to the nightly noise which has become a common feature of urban dwelling despite us having a Noise Abatement Act. As a society we should be resolute and demand more from...

In 2007 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed February 20 as World Day of Social Justice. In his message to mark the day Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated “ The gap between the poorest and the wealthiest around the world is wide and growing….We must do more to empower individuals through decent work, support through social protection and ensure the voices of the poor and marginalized are heard”. For the most part this day of global significance goes unobserved in Jamaica. However social justice is very important in the development of any society. Social justice embodies and promotes a society that is equitable by challenging injustices and creating a tolerance for diversity.   World Day of Social Justice is set aside to focus on achieving poverty eradication, achieving full employment and social integration and human dignity. There is a tendency for us not to get involved in issues of this nature since the belief is that others will look about this. Howeve...

Deuteronomy chapter15 verse 11 “For the poor shall never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land”. Much of the suffering in the world today is as a direct result of the greed of mankind. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening at a very fast pace throughout the developed and developing societies. This ever expanding gap does not augur well for the development of any society especially a small state such as Jamaica. It is abundantly clear that we are living in economically challenging times. However, despite this fact it is also profusely clear that the rich are getting richer and the poor in the society are getting poorer. Successive governments since political independence have pursued and implemented many policies and programmes in the guise of redistributing wealth in the society.   However, this has not worked over the years and as such the gap between those ...

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever Amen!

Do you love the skin you are in? Why is there so much preoccupation with the colour of our skin? Are you happy at what looks back at you? Does your skin define you? Black skin, white skin, yellow skin, Sun damaged and bleached skin too                                                                                         What difference does the colour of your skin makes? Love the skin you are in Wear it with a proud, broad, ear to ear grin Skin is just skin Do you love the skin you are in? Don’t allow your skin to define you! Wayne...

“Wherever leadership is ineffective and or lacking chaos reigns” (Wayne Campbell 2014). The Jamaican society continues to suffer from ineffective leadership in all spheres. Therefore we should not be surprised at the findings by the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) that approximately fifty per cent (50%) of our primary and secondary schools have leadership classified as unsatisfactory.   Notwithstanding that there is an abundance of public opinion which argues that the state of the Jamaican education system would have been better had the government used the funds that went towards the establishment of the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) to provide critical support to those " weaker" schools within the education system. Why do we have education officers? Do you think it would have been more cost effective to have expanded the role and function of the education officer instead of creating a new entity?  One reality which we refuse to admit to i...

Getting licensed before one is allowed to teach has become common place worldwide. Jamaica on the other hand has been lagging behind the rest of the world regarding this best practice. The Jamaica Teaching Council was established to provide the framework to license our teachers. However, there are many misconceptions regarding the role of the Jamaica Teaching Council and this has added to a plethora of misinformation and uneasiness in education circles regarding the Council. Many teachers are opposed to the Teaching Council Bill in its present form because sections of the Bill are riddled with unfairness towards the teaching profession. An area of grave concern which The Teaching Council Bill falls short on is the protection and security of the major stakeholders.   The Bill also gives legal powers to the Council to immediately suspend and cancel the registration of a teacher, who is charged for what is deemed a disqualifiable offence; such offences include sexual offences, murder,...

Dress Code © Wayne Campbell   Males dress in female attire Females dress in male attire What has gone wrong? Why are our males dressing like females? Tight fitting jeans Shirts resembling blouses Under garment exposed, as if a badge of honour Fashion, maybe? Why are our females dressing like males? Blouses resembling shirts Boots parading as shoes Fashion gone berserk Oh, I long for those days to return! W hen males will once again dress like males and females no longer in male clothing    Wishful thinking perhaps Maybe I just old fashioned And trying to relive the past in the future Fashionable? Or an act of defiance? Only time will tell.  

The relatively small Nordic country of Finland is usually at the top of international education rankings. However, this pride of place did not happen by chance. Over twenty years ago a radical decision was undertaken by the government of Finland to overhaul and transform their education system. Since then the government of Finland has maintained a culture of success regarding educational outcomes for their students. While the Jamaica culture and society is quite different from that of Finland, there are parallels in both societies and no doubt we could learn from them by examining the educational model they pursued. Finland has a population of 5.4 million people which makes it a relatively small state. Jamaica’s population is approximately 2.8 million. Free education is provided in Finland from kindergarten to the tertiary level of the education system; however this is not the situation in Jamaica. Finland is considered by educational theorists to have one of the best if not the best...

No one wants to be associated with an educational institution labelled as a prison school.   As a result many school administrators are upset, some have even cried openly since the Jamaica Constabulary Force report on Education and Crime was tabled in Parliament by Education Minister Ronald Thwaites. However, while it’s safe to say that the report is flawed and misrepresented in some ways we should look beyond the headlines and see whether some good can emerge from this report. The fact is as a society we have been heading down the road of under-performance and under achievement of our young men for quite some time. This has resulted in many of our young men ending up in our penal institutions or dropping out of school. There are two schools of thought with regards to boys, underachievement. Firstly, there are those who locate the problem in relation to wider social changes and how this impacts males, particularly adolescent males with regard to their perception of masculinity and ...