by Dr J Lennon
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Providing better education is considered the key to alleviating poverty, population growth and other social ills.
Jamaica’s fee based system was described by one politician as “educational apartheid”.
However, better funding and the eradication of fees are possible if schools were solar powered. Our electricity is amongst the highest in the world and one school estimated a payback period of under a year. State owned solar powered schools are economically viable with payback periods under 4 years.
There are no economic reasons for our schools to be on the grid but they are. They are destitute, deliver substandard education and must charge fees – the perpetrators of poverty. It is morally corrupt.
In 2015 the UN presented the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs to address poverty, hunger, education and other basic services in the developing world.
However, there is a major flaw: the process is under the control of governments and Transparency International regards Jamaica and over 100 other countries as corrupt.
Quality Education, SDG4 impacts numerous SDGs such as poverty, hunger and growth so is crucial to the overall success of the SDGs. However, a solar power solution, which would also impact SDG7 Clean Energy, is absent. This is madness.
According to the UN, the SDGs are reviewed by the UN Development Programme based in the country. The government and UNDP Jamaica have my proposal based on prudence: service debt instead of indefinitely paying bills.
After receiving my findings both bodies ceased communication with me. Likewise the headquarters of the UNDP and the mainstream news media. The UNDP professes to work to “eradicate poverty while protecting the planet.” That is obviously not the case.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that we have 12 years to radically change every aspect of society if we are to avoid disaster. The price of solar generated electricity has crashed but state investment in solar powered schools in the Caribbean is not promoted by the UN or IMF. Why?
Jamaica highlights why the UN is detrimental.
You can read more in the blogs on my website, Let’s Build a Better Jamaica.
