Changing our Culture – Education

For the last thirty years Jamaicans have been accustomed to receiving ‘free education’.  The reality is that education is not free but is simply paid for out of taxes collected by the government.  Given the current world economic crisis it is time to revisit that culture of freeness especially given the fact that so many Jamaicans refuse to pay their taxes.

Today many persons who wish to send their children to school adopt a practice of waiting until the last minute to find the resources necessary to buy the required school items.  This puts significant stress on the parents who struggle to put together the money to pay for auxiliary fees, books and uniforms.  Although this is not a new phenomenon the cost of these essential items has risen to a level whereby many can no longer afford them.

Nowhere is this more evident then when we look at the cost of tertiary education.  The government currently pays about 80-85 percent of the expense of university education leaving the student to find the remainder.  Many students apply to the Students Loan Bureau for a loan to finance their studies but in these difficult times find it hard to obtain a job from which they can repay their loans.  In addition the Students Loan Bureau does not have sufficient resources to lend to all who apply and thus has to limit the number of successful applicants.

It is time for us to change our culture of seeing education as free and to recognise that times have changed.  The costs associated with education have increased beyond our capability to finance at the last moment.  We need to adopt the practice of other countries and recognise that from the moment a child is born we should begin saving towards financing the education of that child.  Education must be seen as a priority and as the means of improving one’s economic mobility.  If it is hard to obtain a good job while having qualifications it is almost impossible to do so without any.  Education opens the door to any opportunities here and also provides the option of a job elsewhere in this global world in which we live.

It is time to see the importance of education and to change our spending habits so that we have resources to help finance our children’s education.  It will reduce the stress that is associated with back to school activities and may be the only chance that one’s child has of attending a tertiary institution.  It is never easy to change what one has become used to but for the benefit of our children’s future it is a change that we must make.