Prime Minister Golding has a real point about this proliferation of graduation ceremonies across the education system - from the community 'basic' schools, through primary and secondary institutions, to community colleges and universities.

It is often comic to observe three- and four-year-old "graduands", cutely trussed-up in tuxedoes like overstuffed penguins; or, the girls competing with their mothers in the latest-style gowns and weaves, or other fashions of the day.

The absolute hilarity, though, is to watch some self-absorbed bureaucrat or petty official delivering high-minded speeches to fidgeting toddlers and distracted mothers, whose attention is focused on having their children listen.

For this spectacle, and the later picture-taking, with gowns and mortarboards, the proud parents, as Mr Golding noted, may pay out as much as $8,000. This usually, is money which cash-strapped parents struggle to pay. It tends to get more expensive the higher up the education rung you go.

The larger issue

But even as we agree with the prime minister's concern regarding the economic pressure on parents to have their children participate in these affairs, there is a larger issue at play. Of what real value are these ceremonies, except, perhaps, as outings for children and parents, and as an opportunity for teachers to have their egos stroked? Oh, of course! Someone makes money out of the affairs.

The point is that graduation ceremonies ought to mark the successful completion of courses of study, in recognition of which graduands are awarded certificates. We hardly consider going through kindergarten/basic or primary school occasions for graduations, at least not of the kind to be marked by formal and shamefully expensive ceremonies.

In any event, we are hard-pressed to understand why those who organise these events believe, given education-performance data, that they ought to have big celebratory affairs.

After all, 31 per cent of the students entering primary schools have not achieved mastery of all four of the readiness inventory. At grade four, 42 per cent of the students fail to achieve mastery of the literacy and numeracy requirements. And fully a third of them are destined to leave primary school almost illiterate.

Average test score

At grade six, the mean average test score in math is 48 per cent, and 52 per cent in English. In the secondary system, less than 12 per cent of students pass five subjects, including math and English, at a single sitting of the regional secondary school-leaving exams. Not so long ago, the University of the West Indies' Mona campus had to run courses in remedial English for many of its students.

What such data suggest is that the concentration of schools, teachers and professional organisations, such as the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), ought to be fixing the problems - turning out literate students, getting test scores up and gaining more passes at CSEC.

We can't say we are surprised, though, that this bigger picture was not the focus of the JTA's president, Doran Dixon, in his response to Mr Golding's suggestion of a policy to deal with graduation.

Fixing education is hard work, demanding accountability from all players, particularly from principals and their teachers. Performance-based pay and fixed-term contracts for heads is a way to start - with urgency.

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