Families have spent their last cent to ready their children for the much-anticipated return to the classroom. While buildings and furniture may be freshly patched and painted, there are many outstanding matters that fat-salaried wafflers in the education ministry who carry heavy responsibilities for the sector continue to sidestep.
Key stakeholders, including communities and churches, cannot set these matters aside as they have major implications for the current and future cohorts of students, their teachers, and school administrators, as well as for the very welfare of families and our nation.
The education ministry seems determined to place the issue of devotions in school on the stockpile of matters to be deferred, without any understanding that there is no peace or prosperity in school or anywhere else without God. By invoking the presence of God through worship, an atmosphere of godliness is engendered, and it carries through to classes, informs interaction on the playing field, and protects our children on their way to or from school or while they are browsing the world wide web.
Devotion provides a righteous filter for our students as they face the challenges of each school day.
Where God is, there is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. By now, the government would have learnt that no one can make laws to enforce any of these vital variables. The way of the Lord is the way of integrity and excellence.
Wanton murders are happening in nearly every community across the island, and abuse and corruption are rife. It is crucial that our children are taught to reject the bloodlust and waywardness that have become synonymous with the popular Jamaican brand. Devotions must return to every school without delay.
Having floundered in its mandate to manage the school system over the past years, the education ministry seems to be blaming families for its failures. It would appear that the ministry believes it can fix families and reduce the rapid decline at school. Recent efforts to curtail discipline in the home suggest a determination to infiltrate the family and usurp the role and function of parents.
Just to remind you that parents have the primary responsibility for their children and the matter of discipline remains in their hands. This attempt to ban spanking in homes goes against our own culture, mores, and norms. The view that spanking as a disciplinary measure is abusive and must not be condoned is the height of foreign foolishness. The majority of adult Jamaicans were spanked as children and learnt what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour from lessons that have been imprinted in our psyche from the application of this proven disciplinary measure. Note this: the majority of us have stayed clear of criminal activity, thanks to the diligence of our parents and the sting of the whip. In fact, available data indicate that in countries where spanking in homes is prohibited, there are very high levels of heinous crimes committed in schools and communities, including mass shootings that see to the death of children running for cover behind terrified teachers. Spanking is a very effective disciplinary measure to keep our children in check, and we will not support any move to ban it in our homes.
Utterances about tolerance of reprobate lifestyles and other religions have also surfaced in the wake of the ministry’s subtle rebuff of Christian intervention in the education system. We wish to make it clear that Jamaica belongs to Jesus Christ, the Son of the True and Living God, and Him alone will our children worship.
We reject any notion of interfaith worship, and our children will not be taught to accommodate, tolerate, or worship any other God but Jehovah.
While recruiting teachers from other jurisdictions to fill vacancies in our classrooms may be commendable in the face of a severe teacher shortage, we are curious to know if allowing our own educators to migrate is a part of the broader strategy to expose our children to alien cultures and practices that our people have rejected for centuries.
Our teachers were not accorded the decency of a livable wage that is in keeping with their priceless contribution to our nation’s development.
Our teachers have worked tirelessly, without critical resources in broken-down classrooms, feeding hungry students from their own meagre purses without complaining for years. They have taught, mothered, and guided our students through some turbulent circumstances, even when their own lives came under threat from angry parents and their charges. Yet, the education ministry failed to stand up for the teachers at a time when they needed support to negotiate better salaries with the government. One must wonder if there is a plan afoot to replace our teachers with others and programmes powered by artificial intelligence, hence cutting the budgetary cost of education.
It is clear that coming to Jamaica, where foreigners pay big bucks to vacation, is a wonderful junket for foreign teachers, but even with years of experience in their own country, they will never be able to replace the home-grown and home-taught pedagogy and personal commitment that our own educators bring to the table.
For the past eight years, the Ministry has been providing a subvention of $17,000 to $19,000 per student to the schools, while maintenance costs, food prices, and the cost of stationery have risen. Tonne loads of needs associated with school operations, ensure that some institutions cannot afford to employ temporary teachers when members of staff go on leave. There are many reports over the past school terms of teacherless classes for some core subjects and students are left for hours unattended, yet we are alarmed at the weak exam results.
Another troubling matter is the unrighteous Samoa Agreement, which the government has signed despite the pushback against Satanic clauses contained in it.
Just to remind you that both buggery and abortion are still criminal offences under Jamaican law. The number of unconstitutional court rulings striking down decisions made by this government should be a good reason to stay within the parameters of the law.
The slightest indication that efforts are being made to introduce the Reproductive Health Rights or Gender Equality agenda in Jamaican classrooms will be met with stout resistance. Our children will never be taught that abortion on demand is a desire to be pursued or a right to be embraced. Our children will not be confused about their God-given family structure. Marriage is between one man and one woman, and no other form is acceptable to us.
Regardless of how much money the government accepted in the form of budgetary support, the education of our children will not be a part of the repayment plan to the Beast and its anti-God agenda, with its established and celebrated mission to steal, kill, and destroy.
We serve notice: Jamaica is still a nation under God, and our children will be taught the way of the Lord so that as they grow old, they will not depart from it. This is our pledge, and we will stand by it.