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Errol Miller   A lot has been written about the importance of the early years in setting the foundations for children’s education. Since Independence, prompted by initiatives promoted by the […]

There is no shortage of talk in Jamaica today. Indeed, there are merchants of talk who have turned chat into a profitable business and in the process shattered the popular saying that talk is cheap. This is not to say that talk should be discounted or despised. Remember, in the beginning, was the Word.  The word is a critical element in the creative process. The problem is when we can only talk and can do little else.

The Ministry of Education Youth and Culture is to be congratulated for mounting the three-day Exposition on Education at the National Arena. It gave an opportunity for the public to get some idea what is happening within education as well as to appreciate the enormous talents of our students and teachers. Equally important it gave teachers and others within the education sector the opportunity to become more aware and informed about what was happening in other segments of the system other than their own.

The need to strengthen and improve early childhood education is one of the areas that seems to enjoy bipartisan support. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition highlighted this area in their Budget presentations, in which education took centre stage. In a subsequent discussion of the Budget Debate on the Breakfast Club Mrs Beverly Manley remarked that apart from early childhood education, she found discussion of other issues in education boring. It is necessary to place some perspective on this emphasis on early childhood education.

Both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister have put out their proposals for the development of education. Each proposal has elements of considerable merit. While there are differences between them, both proposals have common elements. One such common element is that of promoting school attendance. Indeed, this is a major weakness of primary education and one that must be tackled.