The Editor, Sir:

In response to the headline story 'Virtually illiterate', published last Friday, please consider these thoughts.

Maybe Jamaican children don't feel like they should really care about education because the images of the 'successful people' that they can relate to are often not very educated ... I'm talking about highly paid athletes and entertainers. I believe North American media and Jamaican pop culture have merged to create a new prototype for success in the minds of Jamaica's youth ... and it appeals even the more strongly to kids in broken homes where there is not adequate caring, educated, mindful adult supervision .... and so the children are living a lie.

The lawyer or the doctor or the engineer is less visible to the average Jamaican child than the rapper or singer or DJ or football player. They are bombarded with these images daily.

The system for sure has broken down also, but without strong family and community values to check the system, repairing the system will only be a temporary fix and it will soon fall down again. Why? Because it is the community and the family that should audit and hold the system to a certain level of accountability. This has failed ... So:

1. Rebuild the family unit (one-on-one mentoring/counselling/caretaking of broken homes to address the psychological deficiencies that keep broken homes in a troubled state - need Jesus here and the support of the Christian community to pour out love and teaching).

2. Rebuild community (taking pride in who and what you are for the right reasons: people need jobs to work at so that they feel they are meaningful contributors to society; to provide a sense of worth, place and belonging; a goal to work towards; that there is possibility of promotion and the hope for a better life. People need to feel proud of where they live - improve the physical surroundings. Expand people's views to broaden their horizons to see where they fit into the bigger picture of the world and how they can move themselves and their communities forward).

3. Rebuild the system (education system itself to be re-engineered and integrated into the community with checks and balances/accountability. The community and the family must have an obvious ownership stake in the system so that they make efforts to maintain and improve it. Each school to have its own endowment (like U.S. universities) - a financial lump sum that is added to via different activities - fundraising, etc.

The endowment is invested in world markets (e.g: mutual funds, forex, venture capital disbursements) and is made to grow by a fund manager who reports to a board of trustees for each school. The profits from the endowment are used to supplement the financial needs of the school until the endowment is so large that the profits generated will allow each school to stand on its own without the need for government assistance. Money is never taken out of the endowment itself).

These are just a few proposals that might help. Perhaps, if they are aired in the press, others might give input and our situation might move from despair to hope .

One thing is certain: we cannot afford to sit back and moan over this. We need to be proactive at all levels of society - from the Government right across the whole spectrum of society, including the business sector. After all, our children are our biggest investment, or at least in my opinion, they ought to be. And that is where the biggest investment should be made.

I am, etc.,

JOSEPH O'GILVIE

ogijesu@caribsurf.com