My phone rang. It was author Veronica Blake Carnegie sharing her distress that so many Jamaicans are illiterate. “We need to start a refresher school for the ‘three Rs’ for Jamaicans 15 to 50,” she declared. “I am going to reach out to HEART and see what they can do. We must call it a refresher because there was resistance to being seen going to literacy classes.”

My 90-year-old friend continued, “Look at Barbados with a 98 per cent literacy rate. Their country is clean because their people are educated. They were taught to know better, so they do better.” She bemoaned the quality of some educators. “Imagine,” she said, “my friend brought her child’s ‘corrected’ homework to show me — a sentence, ‘The guest has arrived,’ was marked wrong by the teacher, who changed ‘guest’ to ‘guess’. Then I got a note from a university graduate stating that they were on ‘leaf’ instead of ‘leave’.”

“How is Jamaica going to advance if we don’t deal with this?” Veronica asked. She said she would be contacting HEART and I dearly hope she will get a hearing. Her concern is out of love for her people and a desire to see us take our rightful place in the world.

I recall, as an English teacher at Calabar, I realised that my students needed remedial help and asked that they get copies of the New First Aid in English. One boy said he had to hide the book from his mother as she would be appalled that he was using a primary school book. However, having studied the basics, everyone’s grades shot up not only in English but also in other subjects. A good grasp of English helps students’ ability to understand the questions on their exam papers, regardless of the subject.

This leads me to an online debate about the use of our Jamaican patois in the classroom. Well, my class studied and acted out Miss Lou’s poetry, enjoying their cadence and economy of language. Likewise, they loved the prose of Chinua Achebe.

This is not a competition between English and Jamaican patois; this is honouring the language which we Jamaicans know and speak as well as our official language, English. In several Caribbean countries, including Haiti and Curacao, the native language is spoken and written side by side with French, English, or Dutch. Our brains can accommodate many languages, so let us not dumb down ourselves.

AMBER HEART SUCCESS

Our hearts swelled with pride as we watched students of the Amber HEART coding programme march up the aisle to Agent Sasco’s Winning Right Now last week. Indeed, they were the winingest graduation class we had ever witnessed in Jamaica because, with every diploma, the 27 graduates received an employment letter; they had jobs guaranteed by the Amber Group, Digicel, and National Commercial Bank (NCB).

After a beaming Prime Minister Andrew Holness presented the graduates with their certificates, Dushyant Savadia, head of the Amber Group; Jabbor Kayumov, CEO of Digicel Jamaica; and NCB senior executive Nadeen Matthews Blair presented the job letters.

The prime minister sounded the alarm for Jamaica’s readiness to be the region’s digital hub and an easier place to do business. He noted our fame as the home of the fastest man and woman alive, and challenged us to match their speed in getting business done. He dismissed the attitude that successful projects can only come out of years of laborious planning, pointing to the completion of the digital programme, which had only been conceptualised early last year.

Professor Alvin Wint, chairman of HEART/NSTA Trust, remarked on India’s leadership in digital education, ascribing it to the vision of then Prime Minister Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao, who selected young, well-educated individuals to join his Cabinet. He noted this vision in Prime Minister Holness and urged the graduates to embrace the opportunities their employment at these companies would bring them.

Savadia, founder of Amber Group, told us that his parents had kicked him out of their house as they had become frustrated with his bad habits, and without a university degree he decided to learn as much as he could on his own and build on his vision. It was a pleasure to meet his proud parents who were visiting Jamaica for the first time to witness the result of their tough love.

QUEEN ELIZABETH’S PLATINUM JUBILEE

The people of the United Kingdom have been celebrating the historic 70th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, a woman who has carried her crown with empathy, intelligence, and faith. Indeed, she has shared that her Christian faith has been an anchor in her life, and that she tries to follow the teachings of Jesus.

While we know that the Netflix series The Crown is part history and part fiction, it gave us an insight into her many duties and the interactions she has had with a succession of prime ministers. Her alleged disagreement with the ultra-Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over stringent social measures reflected her Christian principles.

Michelle and Barack Obama posted a moving tribute to Queen Elizabeth on social media. We remember when racist commentators drew attention to First Lady Obama’s affectionate gesture of placing her arm across The Queen’s shoulders. They somehow seemed to have forgotten that The Queen responded likewise.

President Obama’s message reflects our feelings toward this great lady: “Before I took office, Michelle and I had not been to too many palaces, so we were not sure what to expect on our first trip to Buckingham Palace. But we should not have been worried, Her Majesty put us at ease with her grace and generosity, so much so that I walked away thinking she actually reminded me a little bit of my grandmother… Certainly, I can say that getting to know her was one of the great privileges of my years in office and I learned so much from seeing the example she shared for all of us who had the privilege to serve.”

He continued, “Your Majesty, it would be an understatement to say the world has changed a bit in the seven decades since you first came to power, but your character never has. Your steadfast stewardship of one of our most important democracies has made the world safer and more prosperous through war and peace, times of adversity, and times of prosperity. Your life has been a gift not just to the United Kingdom, but to the world.”

FAREWELL, ARTHUR “TURO” ZIADIE

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Arthur ‘Turo’ Ziadie, a former Jamaica Labour Party senator, chairman of the Urban Development Corporation, and marketing director of Desnoes & Geddes Limited. Despite his high offices, Turo remained approachable and affirming, even for my start-up shop and so many others. He gave wholeheartedly to his country and drew little attention to his quiet but considerable contribution.

His former secretary Doreen Chin noted, “Turo was a humanitarian. Several people have been calling me since his passing, reminding me how he helped them in their careers.”

Our deepest sympathy to his wife Karen and other family members. May the great soul of Turo Ziadie rest in peace.

lowrie-chin@aim.com

www.lowrie-chin.blogspot.com