People’s National Party (PNP) president Mark Golding says the Government’s failure to address challenges in the education system and provide employment opportunities for youths is a driving force for the increase in criminal activities such as scamming.

Golding, speaking at a PNP gathering in St Mary last night, stressed that the education sector needs attention.

“We have a challenge in this country with our education system. We have too many children leaving primary school who [can’t] read and write. They can’t manage secondary education, and when they finish their schooling, there’s nothing there for them, and they go the wrong path into badness and scamming and all kinda things that we don’t want from them,” he said.

The leader of the opposition party has made several appeals for the education system to be transformed, declaring it to be in a chronic state of alarm, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Golding, in August of this year, called for more resources to be pumped into primary education, noting that 30 per cent of students who leave primary school cannot read and write properly.

Youth education and crime statistics

However, the Ministry of Education has hosted annual summer programmes aimed at bringing underperforming grade-four and pre-high-school students up to the required standard. This year, the programme targeted 28,000 students to assist them with reading, comprehension, and mathematics. Other efforts have been implemented to improve reading levels, however, the opposition leader is adamant that more needs to be done.

Violence among the youth is another issue mentioned by Golding at the conference in St Mary last night, an issue he believes is tied to the failure of the education system and the lack of job opportunities for the youth.

Police Commissioner Antony Anderson disclosed last year that 875 major crimes that were committed in Jamaica from 2019 to 2022 were carried out by perpetrators between 15 and 17 years of age. The crimes included murder, shooting, robbery, assault and rape.

Proceeds from lotto scamming, money laundering, cybercrimes, and drug and firearms trafficking have reportedly resulted in the annual flow of at least US$1 billion into Jamaica. Last year, Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck also shared that there was an increase in scamming among youths.

“When you go in western Jamaica schools and you ask the children, what would you like to become, amazingly they have no pretensions, they put up their hands ‘scammer!’ Obviously, these children are learning what they see,” said Chuck at the second day of the two-day Child Abuse Guidelines Training seminar last year.