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Time for a revolution in education
Dr Franklin Johnston
Friday, May 18, 2012
EDUCATION is our largest business. The notion that education is State-funded schools plus Independent schools is tosh. And so at last we are about to document and quantify this vast enterprise.
The minister avers "all children are mine!" Big paradigm shift! Big Daddy! How else? Schools started as charity, then State-funded and now it is a melange of State, faith, charity and for-profit schools. The education enterprise is massive — 1.4 million involved; turnover of some £220 billion and billions more in assets.
THWAITES… as the twig is bent, so the tree grows
MOE Ltd with its assets on balance sheet could fund its own growth. JSE listing? Public offer oversubscribed! A happy IMF, an asset on the balance sheet of Jamaica Inc. Public sector modernisation must go deeper so we leverage our generational investments and assets. Revolution is in the air. Please support the education ministry and teachers and demand good results of schools, from infants through to adults in JFLL. People are our greatest asset. We have lagged, so let's invest and go forward.
The education enterprise has two sectors, one State-funded the other private enterprise and faith. The latter spans all levels and is dominant in some. Our "Edupreneurs" are active; just walk down your main street and read the signs offering GSAT or degree courses. Palaces of higher learning grace our mid-town skyline, leverage their assets or fees and grow.
Their teachers don't have 10 types of leave; work in the holidays and as all private sector, have a day job, mind kids, attend UTech at nights to become professionals, get no study leave, no extra pay. Yet the best leaders, principals, managers and chairmen are in the cash up-front, non-state school sector, not the cushy, leave-addicted State schools. Strange isn't it?
University education is not a priority as we graduate more than we need. Most migrate, we subsidise America so UWI needs a US and UK campus to earn FX. UWI and UTech export graduates and we pay them to do it. Madness! Yet as students get close to work, firms get involved so the State can pull back.
The private sector can now produce all the graduates we need. Our biggest local law school is London University distance method and some 40 per cent of degrees are by commercial entities all funded by student fees. What is the State doing wrong? UWI is indispensable — a multiverse of talent at our disposal. UTech is our STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering, Math campus; is it? or a UWI clone? Banks have cheap loans for farmers and SMEs.
Bankers do the same for students. You may need a subsidy to mitigate interest gaps, moratorium and amortisation. The IMF would be happy since banks use their own cash, not taxes. Take the SLB out of the loan business and every student would be eligible for a bank loan — no limit on funds, no political favours, no childish protests; everyone wins!
Secondary is a big priority. The private sector is well in there but we need more quality and some 90 new schools. The non-state sector can do more. Name-brand schools must go islandwide. God should say to R Danny, "I will give you Greenfield stadium, its environs and a 1,200-student school, just expand the quality JC Group of Schools."
JC has young men from first form to adulthood and can use these years to build great cricketers from scratch. Greg Shirley's Munro should take the brand east to State lands in cool Newcastle or Mavis Bank to earn FX for boarders from the diaspora and Kingston. We can all be winners!
Primary is even more crucial. It is end of school for most youth. Prosperity begins here, so every student must be work-ready. Primary is about 96 per cent State. Can we build 10 schools a year for 15 years? No! So, do the math, stop bitching about shift schools and learn to work a shift well. Let's use ICT and media to infuse shifts and homes with quality. Paulwell's savvy, e-learning, e-books, Thwaites' master teachers and smart classrooms, we can do it!
Early childhood is top priority. Why? We spot inherited ills, stuff from parents — drugs, STIs as in the five years a child is made. We can't rehabilitate adults who were never habilitated as kids. The private sector now run day care, crèche and 80 per cent of basic schools. MPs must chip in. Cabinet must vote billions to pay and equip all basic schools; use the best and brightest teachers, pay them more than the rest so all other stages of schooling work well. Ronnie says, "As the twig is bent, so the tree grows!" Miss P, history beckons, put Thwaites on the IMF team. This is revolution. Show IMF the human face of the nation so they ring fence more cash for schools. Prosperity begins here. Bite the bullet now or suck salt another 50 years.
Legacy schools must leverage their brand. Wolmer's, KC, George's expand their franchise in the west and mid-island? Wow! They may reverse population drift, end antisocial conduct and spread quality. Thwaites must give newly built schools to the trusted brands and pay them franchise fees like Kentucky Fried. Build a new JC and Immaculate in every parish.
Education tourism and export? Flaky foreign schools are recruiting here so our education brands must go global, fight back with a good business model. Old boys love the old school. Let the NY chapter "run wid it!" Andrews and Munro (UK) on 50 acres of land in Essex near London can serve the diaspora, mixed-race kids and get UK State funds as a diversity academy.
Copyright and export Wolmer's' know-how so alumni abroad rejoice; connect the diaspora and earn FX. Our "out of many one" teachers know how to handle diversity — black, white, brown kids. St George's boarding campus in upstate NY would pull Jamaicans from the Tri-State area. Westwood in Toronto? Yeah! Our brands can create jobs here and abroad.
What's the hook? We speak English, excel at sport and "do" discipline and manners. Kill dem wid "Champs Canada" and "Champs Ghana" — vision!
The Munro and Hampton model can work in Abuja, Addis Ababa as a posh school offering world-class character building in English for rich Africans and diplomats who now send their kids to the UK. Let's put excitement in education, earn FX, inspire teachers, motivate students. Spend a few years teaching in KC (Fort Lauderdale), JC (Nairobi) and return with ideas and "brio!" JTA offshore agents can learn best practice.
The days when Latin American students came here for immersion in English can return. Our own rich people will not endow new schools but the British left us great schools and a great language — let us work them for our profit.
Bishop Dr Howard Gregory a conscious cleric, is a credit to his church and a champion of the disadvantaged; his preferment is well deserved. Respect, Bishop Howard!
Dr Franklin Johnston is a strategist, project manager and advises the minister of education
franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...ation_11493706
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1vECRUthW
Dr Franklin Johnston
Friday, May 18, 2012
EDUCATION is our largest business. The notion that education is State-funded schools plus Independent schools is tosh. And so at last we are about to document and quantify this vast enterprise.
The minister avers "all children are mine!" Big paradigm shift! Big Daddy! How else? Schools started as charity, then State-funded and now it is a melange of State, faith, charity and for-profit schools. The education enterprise is massive — 1.4 million involved; turnover of some £220 billion and billions more in assets.
THWAITES… as the twig is bent, so the tree grows
MOE Ltd with its assets on balance sheet could fund its own growth. JSE listing? Public offer oversubscribed! A happy IMF, an asset on the balance sheet of Jamaica Inc. Public sector modernisation must go deeper so we leverage our generational investments and assets. Revolution is in the air. Please support the education ministry and teachers and demand good results of schools, from infants through to adults in JFLL. People are our greatest asset. We have lagged, so let's invest and go forward.
The education enterprise has two sectors, one State-funded the other private enterprise and faith. The latter spans all levels and is dominant in some. Our "Edupreneurs" are active; just walk down your main street and read the signs offering GSAT or degree courses. Palaces of higher learning grace our mid-town skyline, leverage their assets or fees and grow.
Their teachers don't have 10 types of leave; work in the holidays and as all private sector, have a day job, mind kids, attend UTech at nights to become professionals, get no study leave, no extra pay. Yet the best leaders, principals, managers and chairmen are in the cash up-front, non-state school sector, not the cushy, leave-addicted State schools. Strange isn't it?
University education is not a priority as we graduate more than we need. Most migrate, we subsidise America so UWI needs a US and UK campus to earn FX. UWI and UTech export graduates and we pay them to do it. Madness! Yet as students get close to work, firms get involved so the State can pull back.
The private sector can now produce all the graduates we need. Our biggest local law school is London University distance method and some 40 per cent of degrees are by commercial entities all funded by student fees. What is the State doing wrong? UWI is indispensable — a multiverse of talent at our disposal. UTech is our STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering, Math campus; is it? or a UWI clone? Banks have cheap loans for farmers and SMEs.
Bankers do the same for students. You may need a subsidy to mitigate interest gaps, moratorium and amortisation. The IMF would be happy since banks use their own cash, not taxes. Take the SLB out of the loan business and every student would be eligible for a bank loan — no limit on funds, no political favours, no childish protests; everyone wins!
Secondary is a big priority. The private sector is well in there but we need more quality and some 90 new schools. The non-state sector can do more. Name-brand schools must go islandwide. God should say to R Danny, "I will give you Greenfield stadium, its environs and a 1,200-student school, just expand the quality JC Group of Schools."
JC has young men from first form to adulthood and can use these years to build great cricketers from scratch. Greg Shirley's Munro should take the brand east to State lands in cool Newcastle or Mavis Bank to earn FX for boarders from the diaspora and Kingston. We can all be winners!
Primary is even more crucial. It is end of school for most youth. Prosperity begins here, so every student must be work-ready. Primary is about 96 per cent State. Can we build 10 schools a year for 15 years? No! So, do the math, stop bitching about shift schools and learn to work a shift well. Let's use ICT and media to infuse shifts and homes with quality. Paulwell's savvy, e-learning, e-books, Thwaites' master teachers and smart classrooms, we can do it!
Early childhood is top priority. Why? We spot inherited ills, stuff from parents — drugs, STIs as in the five years a child is made. We can't rehabilitate adults who were never habilitated as kids. The private sector now run day care, crèche and 80 per cent of basic schools. MPs must chip in. Cabinet must vote billions to pay and equip all basic schools; use the best and brightest teachers, pay them more than the rest so all other stages of schooling work well. Ronnie says, "As the twig is bent, so the tree grows!" Miss P, history beckons, put Thwaites on the IMF team. This is revolution. Show IMF the human face of the nation so they ring fence more cash for schools. Prosperity begins here. Bite the bullet now or suck salt another 50 years.
Legacy schools must leverage their brand. Wolmer's, KC, George's expand their franchise in the west and mid-island? Wow! They may reverse population drift, end antisocial conduct and spread quality. Thwaites must give newly built schools to the trusted brands and pay them franchise fees like Kentucky Fried. Build a new JC and Immaculate in every parish.
Education tourism and export? Flaky foreign schools are recruiting here so our education brands must go global, fight back with a good business model. Old boys love the old school. Let the NY chapter "run wid it!" Andrews and Munro (UK) on 50 acres of land in Essex near London can serve the diaspora, mixed-race kids and get UK State funds as a diversity academy.
Copyright and export Wolmer's' know-how so alumni abroad rejoice; connect the diaspora and earn FX. Our "out of many one" teachers know how to handle diversity — black, white, brown kids. St George's boarding campus in upstate NY would pull Jamaicans from the Tri-State area. Westwood in Toronto? Yeah! Our brands can create jobs here and abroad.
What's the hook? We speak English, excel at sport and "do" discipline and manners. Kill dem wid "Champs Canada" and "Champs Ghana" — vision!
The Munro and Hampton model can work in Abuja, Addis Ababa as a posh school offering world-class character building in English for rich Africans and diplomats who now send their kids to the UK. Let's put excitement in education, earn FX, inspire teachers, motivate students. Spend a few years teaching in KC (Fort Lauderdale), JC (Nairobi) and return with ideas and "brio!" JTA offshore agents can learn best practice.
The days when Latin American students came here for immersion in English can return. Our own rich people will not endow new schools but the British left us great schools and a great language — let us work them for our profit.
Bishop Dr Howard Gregory a conscious cleric, is a credit to his church and a champion of the disadvantaged; his preferment is well deserved. Respect, Bishop Howard!
Dr Franklin Johnston is a strategist, project manager and advises the minister of education
franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...ation_11493706
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...#ixzz1vECRUthW
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