Educate for leadership – Mitchell

In a scathing rebuke of Jamaica’s leadership and education system, renowned businessman Howard Mitchell says for more than a century the nation’s leaders have maintained a structure that is failing to produce literate and numerate graduates to drive development.

In fact, Mitchell, a former Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica president, said Jamaica has not to any great extent produced relevant practitioners of the skill sets needed for a future of artificial intelligence.

“We’ve therefore designed and built citizens without strong positive coping mechanisms. Followers who have no clear idea of the values and attitudes that go towards the establishment of a thoughtful and productive society,” the business executive said.

He said Jamaica must examine its education system and its curriculum with a view for the future so that students are equipped with capacities that are generally analytical to match and adapt to changes as they emerge.

“Not set them on a road that they can’t come off of without going back to school,” he said.

He was the keynote speaker at Campion College’s annual Archbishop Samuel Carter Lecture on Thursday, where discussions centred on ‘Leadership issues in present day Jamaica’.

Deliberately nurture leaders

Mitchell said all great nations have established programmes that deliberately nurture and educate leaders into leadership, pointing to the Chinese who, he said, have for centuries selected and groomed individuals for their political and production institutions.

So, too, have the United States and United Kingdom, the businessman said, through their Ivy League universities which he described as values and attitudes indoctrinators.

He questioned the existence of similar institutions in the Caribbean, suggesting the that while The University of the West Indies has produced great leaders, it has not been deliberate.

“I submit [it is] not by deliberate design but by merely providing the atmosphere for a high standard of education to those with innate leadership,” said Mitchell.

He said the question of whether the region’s leading university remains the repository and fountainhead of Caribbean values and attitudes has not been answered.

“…Part of the problem is that we do not build into our educational curriculum beliefs and behaviours that are functional and useful to the development of our Caribbean society,” said Mitchell who, at the same time, questioned the efforts being made to train and incubate nationalists and patriots who are unified and unselfish.

He said the current education system has perpetuated the aims and purposes of the Negro Education Grant of 1834-35 – a 10-year subsidy intended by the British government to provide a popular system of education in the colonial territories.

Further, he said this has imitated a political system that is not relevant for the needs of small island developing states.

“I am, however, questioning whether we are making the best use of the system that we have and whether our political directorate is using the democratic mechanisms and structures.

“I’m challenging you to consider whether our parliamentarians are able to properly do the job that they were elected to do and now are being paid well to do,” the businessman said.

He said for the 2021-22 legislative year there were 18 pieces of legislation to be dealt with but only three were finalised, nine were untouched and five were started but not finished.

He said 40 pieces of legislation were mentioned in the governor general’s throne speech for passage in the 2022-23 legislative year but expressed doubt that the rate of success would be different from the previous year.

Not performing effectively

Mitchell said Jamaica’s leaders have not been performing effectively, a fault he said should be shared equally between them and the population.

He said failure will be the result if followers elect leaders whose vision is imperfect, who has limited capacity, doubtful integrity, their commitment to national development is of low priority to their desire for power, their need for enrichment and their attachment to their tribe, they are not equipped properly with resources and are not held accountable for attendance in Parliament and their attention to legislative duties.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com