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Literacy in
Jamaica: a view
Contribution presented by Kay Anderson,
ICAE Vice
President for the Caribbean
Jamaica is one of the largest Caribbean
Countries and is the only English speaking country entirely surrounded
by the Caribbean Sea. It is one of the countries located in the
archipelago of islands known as the Caribbean/West Indies and is only 14
kilometers south of Cuba. The population of Jamaica is estimated at some
2.7 million people, with a rapidly ageing population and increased life
expectance and declining fertility rate. Almost 60% of the population
resides in urban areas, while the general population density is
estimated at 237 persons per sq. kilometer. This has put pressure on the
social systems to cope. The formal education system is under severe
pressure to perform.In Jamaica, the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (incorporated as JAMAL Foundation Limited) has been tasked over the years by successive governments to increase the number of adults with basic and functional literacy skills. Jamal had been relatively successful at this task. By October 2006, however the JAMAL had begun a process of upgrading, transforming itself from an organization primarily offering programmes of basic literacy and numeracy, to one providing a wide range of educational opportunities for individuals 15 years and over. With this change of focus has come a change of name, from the time honoured JAMAL, which had begun to have negative associations to illiteracy attached, to the current name, The Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL). The intent is to provide educational opportunities for 250,000 Jamaican over the next five years, leading to improved basic and continuing education and secondary-level certification. The island-wide Basic Literacy/Numeracy programme had an enrolment of 8,380 persons with 6,606 in attendance. The High School Equivalency Programme (Hisep) will assist the JFLL to meet these targets and to promote a culture of life long learning in the population. However the HISEP enrollment of 250 students with an attendance of 180, is in a sense a drop in the bucket, notwithstanding an important drop. Challenges inherent in the society- high birth rates, poverty, few job opportunities, violence in the society and in the classroom, poor performance by learners in english and math in particular- impact negatively on the ability of the formal school system to educate all the children to an appropriate standard, resulting in students passing through the system from grade to grade without becoming functionally literate. Approximately 20.1 per cent of Jamaican adults are illiterate and another 15.0 per cent possess only basic numeracy skills, and some 142,000 youth are outside of the education system and labour force, of which 5.0 per cent did not go beyond grade 9. These thousands of school-leavers and working-age adults, who are illiterate or have only an inadequate basic education, are of particular concern. Non-proficient in the basics, they have minimal awareness of the changing twenty-first century knowledge requirement and demands, although they do have some level of technical competence as each of them owns at least one cellular telephone, and knows how to operate it. This could in fact point us to solutions. It is with the urgency need to ugrade the baseline level of educational attainment of large numbers of the local working-age population, that JFLL is endeavoring to focus not just on its original core mission of eradicating illiteracy, but also on promoting and facilitating adult learning opportunities beyond the ‘functional literacy level’. Major initiatives in collaboration with the Jamaican Council on Adult Education (JACAE)include: 1) Adult Learner’s Week activities, which grew out of a desire to identify with and participate in achievement of the goals and objectives of the annual “International Literacy Day” established by UNESCO in 1965. The aim is to focus attention on the importance of literacy to personal and national development, while promoting the concepts of the ‘sovereign learner’ and among other goals to give public recognition to individual adult learners who have surmounted difficulties to improve their lives through continuing education achievements, and to organizations which have demonstrated excellence in supporting or providing adult learning opportunities. 2) The Workplace Learning Programme which focuses on making the workplace more productive. This programme’s genesis and purpose is somewhat different from the work site literacy classes operated by Jamal. A USAID study on productivity in Jamaican workplaces found that low productivity was largely due to lack of management vision, poor work ethics and high levels of worker illiteracy. This provided the stimulus for an independent survey on the impact of illiteracy on productivity in Jamaican commerce and industry. The reports findings revealed that 74% of company executives believed that worker illiteracy was a significant problem, and 48% said that it had adversely affected product quality. The WKP is an income-earning venture which ensures that by the end of the training period each participant functionally literate. 3) The Jamal/JACAE Adult Education Resource Centre was established in 1999 under the joint auspices of Jamal and JACAE to provide computer-aided literacy skills development among other competencies and skills. The center consists of a library, two computer laboratories, and a distance teaching/learning studio. JACAE has collaborated with the Mount St. Vincent University to train adult educators to degree level. JACAE has also embarked on an advocacy and educational programme to sensitize the Jamaican public to the relevance of the Learning City Concept to our local situation. To this end a few years ago a seminar was hosted by JACAE; then a higly successful Learning City Conference was held in the City of Kingston, March 2008. Much enthusiasm has been generated and we are moving to follow up on suggested initiatives. Gender The gender question in Jamaican educational circles is somewhat different to other places. Here we discuss the ‘Marginalized male’ as the females are performing so much better than the males, at all levels of the school system, and the wider society. Interestingly enough although some females have breached the board room ‘ceiling’ this pretty much remains the bastion of the Jamaican male. Programmes are being put in place to encourage the males of the population to take their places in the schools, and colleges. Yet the women continue to dominate on the education and workplace up to middle management. References: Fox, Kristin(2003) Mapping Unattached Youth in Jamaica (Draft) IADB Salmon, Gloria(2002 ), Major initiatives for the enhancement of Adult Literacy in Jamaica. Jamal Foundation Limited, 2001. Jamaica Adult Literacy Survey 1999 Report Draft on the Development and State of the Art of Adult Learning and Education(ALE) in Jamaica (2008) JFLL and Partners.
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