Jamaican Government Makes 6th Form compulsory
Upvoted. Jamaicans need to stop being so naïve and stop blindly believing that everything a government does is in their interest. Learn from history. 'Government' is a necessary device but it is prone to abuse. You need to watch them keenly. Despite the rhetoric to the contrary, in the history of the world, there has NEVER been a political elite that has the interest of the poor, regular people at heart. We need to start from that position. It may sound cynical but that is reality. We need to start from the position that 'government' in our context actually means a political party - a corrupt political elite. A political party's purpose is to stay in power. In Jamaica, that means maintaining the financial support of the corporate elite and the dwindling voter support of the electorate mostly made up of poor, struggling people at the mercy of and exploited by said corporate elite. That voter support legitimizes the whole process of exploitation. It also means maintaining the support of the army and police to quash and suppress those who don't comply with 'the Babylon system' as Rasta calls it.
We don't educate our children about their history of exploitation and the heroic efforts of our ancestors to fight against it. They might get ideas.... We don't educate our children about Africa. 'Training' is what is really important to the government. Using religion and school discipline we develop docile adults who sheepishly comply with everything - with little protest. Only the gangsters are messing things up because they refuse to comply and they are anything but docile! The gangsters want everything now. As fast as they come off the conveyor belt in the ghettos, we neutralize them. That is how we 'solve' our crime problem. Yet, it remains unsolved. We need to step up the kill rate some say....
For government to really educate our people properly would be to shoot themselves in the foot because an educated populace is difficult to control. The game would be up. An educated population would understand what is happening to them in Jamaica. Educated people will question everything a political party does, its motives, actions, etc. Educated people would know what action to take to resolve and bring justice to our situation.
On the face of it, this proposal seems to the unenlightened to be a good one until one looks into the gory details. Everybody loves education. The more the merrier we think so we quickly and blindly applaud anything and anybody who says 'more education'. First of all, as Mr. Espeut writes, there is the lack of stakeholder consultation and agreement in this proposal. This is being done by fiat. Only tyrants act like that.
Another thing, as the United Independent Congress' leader Joseph Patterson alleges, is this being done to temporarily massage the unemployment stats prior to the next election in 2 - 3 years? Is the motive really about helping students? Will this help students? The pandemic has ravaged the economy and destroyed many small businesses - the largest group of employers. Unemployment is expected to skyrocket. Students retained in school for 6th form will stay off the unemployment rolls for at least 2 years. Are we warehousing these newly would-be unemployed in our schools? Question everything.
Where are the resources to make this magically happen? Michael Manley once made a declaration that university tuition would be free. It was so surprising that it is alleged that not even his own education minister was privy to the decision. The Opposition spokesman on Education, Edwin Allen, so impressed by Manley's announcement, crossed the floor of parliament to shake Michael Manley's hand. We know what happened to that - it was not sustainable. Even our 'beloved' Michael Manley behaved like a tyrant sometimes....Even so, a few did benefit from the 'freeness' - until it ran out....Now, university tuition rates have risen to make university unaffordable for most and most high school graduates are so poorly educated that they can't qualify for university anyway....Even tyrants are not magicians....
Resources are limited, where are the studies, the tangible evidence that this sixth form proposal is the best use of our very limited resources? Question everything.
“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices”. George Orwell 1903-1950
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