This
paper examines the issue of the financing of tertiary
education from the perspective of an educational entrepreneur
and in the larger contexts of formulating tertiary and
higher education policy in Jamaica and the known deficiencies
and chronic problems of the education system.
The quite variable higher education system spanning
the public and private sectors with a range of expectations
and poor policy definition is surveyed along with the
underpinnings of the tertiary sector in the secondary,
primary and early childhood levels of the national education
system. The historical origins of the system are briefly
reviewed.
The fiscal difficulties of the Government of one of
the most indebted countries in the world in financing
education is treated in the face of rising expectations
and demands. A critical financing lesson drawn from
a brief and broad survey of fee paying at various levels
of the education system is that ‘clients’
are prepared to pay for quality education services especially
where stakes are high as in the competition for scarce
quality places in high schools or demand is greatly
outstripping supply as in degree-level.
The paper demonstrates that the issue of financing
education, from a series of events over the last few
years, is now firmly on the table, and as the country’s
fiscal condition remains critical it is not likely to
fall off the agenda as in the past. The issue, it argues,
must be satisfactorily resolved, and soon as a fundamental
part of any formulation of an education policy.
The link between education and development is discussed
and the comparatively poor performance of the Jamaican
education system vis a vis our sister Caribbean territories
and some countries with similarly low per capita GDP
is noted.
The call of the West Indian Commission in its “Time
for Action Report” to ‘bite the bullet’
of resolving education financing issues serves as point
of departure for making a number of recommendations
from the perspective of an educational entrepreneur
operating in the Jamaican education system.
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