The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has launched an initiative dubbed ‘Go Public Fund Education,’ which is aimed at encouraging private sector investment in Jamaica’s educational system, as the nation seeks to create a technologically driven workforce geared towards economic growth through strategic financial support.

Speaking with The Gleaner following Tuesday’s launch of the initiative during the opening session of the JTA’s three-day education conference, in Trelawny, the association’s president, Dr. Mark Smith, urged the nation’s two major political parties and private sector leaders to collaborate on financing Jamaica’s educational transformation.

“If ever there’s a time that this can happen, I believe it is now,” said Smith. “It is the first in our history that we have a prime minister who’s a former education minister. We have a finance minister who’s a former education minister, and we also have a highly energetic and charismatic minister of education (who) has started that level of transformation that is necessary.”

Smith said the ‘Go Public Fund Education’ campaign should serve as a clarion call to connect political leaders and financial stakeholders in a meaningful dialogue, which should steer them towards public education funding.

“It’s really designed as a campaign to get the political parties to talk about how they will strategically invest in education because what I always tell people is that an investment in education is an investment in the people of Jamaica,” Smith said.

Referencing Vision 2030, Smith pointed out that while Jamaica aspires to build a knowledge-based economy, the current investment levels are insufficient to achieve such a goal.

“That doesn’t happen by great rhetoric. And what we have seen is that the rhetoric does not match the investments in education,” argued Smith. “We’re not talking about just throwing money at a problem. We’re talking about strategic investments, and what we have today in our education conference at Ocean Coral Spring hotel is another example of how we could direct those funds.”

The ‘Go Public Fund Education’ campaign is being championed by the JTA in partnership with Education International, a global organisation representing 147 million educators. The initiative calls for public-private partnerships to help sustain economic growth by upskilling the workforce.

Smith emphasised the importance of investing in human capital as Jamaica navigates global economic shifts.

“It also requires private partnership with the public sector to get this done. Government alone can’t achieve this,” Smith said. “I often tell private sector individuals that it’s really about empowering the workforce, because the children of today are workers of tomorrow, and so we have to understand that our economic fortunes as a country are inextricably linked.”