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Poverty to Prosperity
Budget Presentation
Gordon House March 19, 2015
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2.
It is necessary to assemble an independent team to conduct the strategic and
operational review and make recommendations. However, unlike the first
Transformation effort, no special implementation team should be set up outside of
the Ministry of Education. I believe that the organizational structure of the Ministry of
Education is now complete and sufficient to deliver what is required. We must now
get the Ministry and the newly established agencies and departments to actually do
the work of transforming the education system and accomplishing the goals
established. Parliament‟s role would be to ensure accountability, and to show its
commitment to the process, I believe a special committee of Parliament, with
appropriate advisors, should be set up to oversee the direction set by this proposed
second phase of education transformation.
3.
With all the new agencies and policies in place there must be an agreement by the
government to allocate the required resources in the budget regardless of the fiscal
exigencies. Otherwise, what is likely to happen is that the government will budget for
inescapable recurrent expense such as salaries for the people hired in those
agencies, but they will cut back on the resources to actually produce the desired
output.
4.
The second phase of Transformation must see a more concerted effort to create
greater stakeholder participation. The churches have been the foundation of
education in Jamaica, many of the schools we rely on today as schools of choice are
church or trust schools, some founded over two centuries ago. I believe the church
and the private sector should be engaged with renewed effort towards building and