The
21st Century has been described as knowledge-based and
highly technological. World economies, in large part,
have become increasingly service oriented and Jamaica
is no exception.
An examination of Jamaica’s education system
reveals that although we have gone through numerous
educational reforms in some areas there is a disconnection
between the offerings of the educational system and
its practical application in the colonial past and is
in many ways still elitist and exclusionary promoting
a dichotomy between vocational career education and
general education. Elements of the system are still
into a rote learning and recitation instead of developing
and promoting the thinking and problem solving skills
of students.
Should we critically examine Jamaica’s education
system in the year 2004 we will see that the educational
output had not undergone much change. We continue to
prepare citizens for a bygone age making misfits in
a world which values competence, that is, application
of knowledge over just the acquisition of knowledge.
This paper and presentation will examine the work of
the HEART Trust/NTA with particular emphasis on the
Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI). As
the National Training Agency, we are proponents and
practitioners of outcomes-based education that embraces
the share national vision for education in Jamaica where
“each child can learn …each one must.”
The organization argues that outcomes- based education
is a path that will produce the educated Jamaican as
one who will:
- love to learn and will therefore be a lifelong
learner, continuously developing wisdom and knowledge
- be well-rounded, agile of mind, able to adjust
to different situations, responsible and able to make
decisions
- speak an additional language and have at least
the minimum requirements for tertiary education
- be a productive citizen-worker in charge of his
or her personal economic advancement
- contribute to national development by being:
- socially-aware and responsible
- conscious of what is good for society
- committed to sustainable lifestyle
- spiritually-conscious and mature
- tolerant of diversity
- rooted in his or her Jamaican “s’
maddiness”
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