Brain vs brawn

THE EDITOR, Sir:

While our athletes demonstrated their prowess in the just-concluded Olympics, dominating the world and certainly the Caribbean, our students once again came out at the bottom of the class in the 2012 CSEC exams. This highlights glaring disparities between our sport and academic prowess, which is cause for national concern.

Our lack of proficiency in English and mathematics doesn't augur well for our prospects in a knowledge-based and increasingly globalised world. Jamaica now needs to transfer the lessons, skills and techniques from our success in athletics to the classroom, because in the knowledge-based world in which we live, brain will improve our prospects much more than brawn.

While no one can argue against placing emphasis on early childhood education, we must continue the remedial interventions at the higher levels to ensure that even those without the correct foundation become participants in our drive to national development.

The country can ill afford the loss of so much of our potential. Therefore, the improvement of programmes such as the Career Advancement Programme and A-STEP is necessary to the overall improvement of education in Jamaica.

PHILLIP CHAMBERS

phillipchambers@digicel.

blackberry.com