WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Dr Mark Smith has announced plans to establish a think tank within the next three months.

The initiative will advocate for increased government funding for the education sector, with a specific focus on the use of the education tax to modernise school infrastructure in line with 21st-century standards.

“Under my leadership at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, we are establishing a JTA think tank that will develop policy recommendations,” said Smith, whose tenure ends in August.

“We will present these to the Government, moving beyond merely identifying deficiencies to providing tangible solutions. The goal is to foster collaboration, not antagonism, and to ensure that we provide the necessary information for meaningful change.”

For more than four decades, there has been no clear governmental disclosure regarding what percentage of these funds is specifically allocated to education, a long-standing concern the JTA hopes to address through strategic dialogue.

“If we could secure a substantial portion of these funds for educational improvements, we could begin to see significant infrastructure upgrades in schools, which is urgently needed,” said Smith.

A vocal proponent of education system modernisation, Smith highlighted the outdated conditions of many Jamaican public schools, describing them as resembling 19th- and 20th-century relics.

“Many of our schools are outdated, trapped in the last century. We must make critical investments in education to bring them into the modern era and provide our children with the tools necessary to compete on a global scale,” said Smith.