IT WOULD be the worst cynic who would claim that the Golding administration, in these bad economic times, is not faced with difficult decisions - like last week's announcement by Education Minister Andrew Holness of the deferment of the construction of three new schools this fiscal year.

The decision, Mr Holness told journalists during a status report on preparation for the new school year, will defer the spending of $1.5 billion. We suppose that will form part of the $16.8 billion, or 20 per cent of the projected expenditure for programmes that Prime Minister Bruce Golding told ministries to slash from their budgets. Such cuts are necessary if the Government is to have a chance of keeping within its target of a fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of GDP and to meet the preconditions for a US$1.2-billion credit agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Policy pronouncement

But last week's announcement by Mr Holness was emblematic of a seeming incoherent approach to policy formulation or, at least, policy pronouncement on the part of the administration. There is a sense that it lurches from one crisis to another, outing fires along the way, in the absence of an over-arching context. Put another way, the administration appears not as yet to have perfected the art of, as civil servants like to put it, joined-up government.

The point is that a mere month before last week's disclosure of the postponement of the plan to build the schools, Mr Holness, as part of a thoughtful and comprehensive policy statement to Parliament, was speaking of the programme to build six schools and upgrading 4,450 spaces at existing facilities at a cost of $1.2 billion. These new plants are required given the problem of the shortage of school spaces. Indeed, Mr Holness' broader programme calls for the construction/refurbishment of 100 schools to end a system of shift teaching in the island's schools.

Choices have to be made

But Jamaica cannot wish away the economic crisis; so choices, such as the one announced by Mr Holness, have to be made. The problem, though, is that the crisis did not sneak up on Jamaica, and the Government ought to have been aware that it required adjustments long before the education minister spoke in Parliament setting out projects that the administration should have known were undeliverable.

Even more egregious than this issue is the one that is the source of a quarrel between the Government and the teachers' union over back pay and about which Prime Minister Golding rightfully accuses the Jamaica Teachers' Association of unreasonableness. In 2008, with the global crisis on the horizon, Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced his intention of implement the finding of a review that would bring the salaries of teachers up to 80 per cent of market rates. The cost: $15 billion.

At the time, Mr Shaw was warned, including by this newspaper, about the likely impact on the Budget and the concern that nothing was being asked of the teachers in exchange. Mr Shaw's sole argument was that he was merely fulfilling an undertaking of the past administration, as though this was unconnected from current circumstances. Now teachers are insisting on $8 billion in owed amounts.

The Golding administration is virtually two years in office. Going forward, its mantra must be policy cohesion and taking the difficult choices early.

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