Jamaican Primary Education: A Review of Policy-Relevant Studies

Published by Green Lizard Press, University of the West Indies, Mona 1997: Jamaica. The Foreword is by Professor Noel McGinn of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This Monograph is divided into two Sections. Section 1 is a review of fifty studies done by different researchers that were selected on the basis that they were relevant to education policy making in Jamaica with respect to primary education. The reviews cite and comment on the studies highlighting what is judged to be their implications for policymaking. Section 2 contains the abstracts of the fifty selected studies. These abstracts constitute a more detailed account of each study that could be included in the review. These abstracts are included for the benefit of persons interested in the studies or their conclusions but do not have ready access to the Documentation Centre of the School of Education, Mona.

The Monograph includes a Model of Mutual Stakeholder Accountability, proposed by Miller, in which the different stakeholders in the education system hold each other accountable for different aspects of the operation of the education system. The State is held accountable for providing public education. Principals are held accountable for the management of schools and teachers for instruction in classrooms. Parents are held accountable for the health of their children, their regular school attendance and for supplying the implements of learning. Communities are held accountable for the safety and protection of schools located in them. Students are held accountable for their learning.