Start Date
22-6-2013 12:30 PM
End Date
22-6-2013 2:00 PM
Keywords
school accountability, history, Jamaica
Description
Throughout the late nineteenth century, the Jamaican colonial government along with several religious institutions established a small network of Industrial Schools as well as a Reformatory to house criminal, destitute, and displaced juveniles. Advocates of the industrial school system argued that the goal of an industrial school education was to create good colonial citizens. A gender- based vocational oriented curriculum was promoted on the grounds that such an education enforced values of self-sufficiency and thrift. This curriculum differentiated industrial schools from its counterparts in the general education system. The main goal of school administrators was to re-socialize children to become productive citizens. Key to this process of re-socialization was the promotion of ideas such as self-sufficiency, loyalty, and obedience. These displaced delinquent and destitute children, eventually, could become successful farmers, artisans, mothers and fathers.
In spite of this, between 1890 and 1940, the number of industrial schools fluctuated as the colonial state closed schools for girls, due to low numbers, and increasingly provided support for private institutions that incorporated children into the main education system. This paper argues that the Jamaican colonial administration failed to implement necessary regulations to assess the quality of the education provided to wards of the state. Instead, I suggest that the lack of a systematic education policy, as it related to wards of the state, exacerbated tensions created by inadequate financial and human resources. As such, throughout the period, advocates of industrial school education lost ground as many schools closed and children were incorporated into the mainstream education system.
Rights Information
Educating Wards of the State: Gender-Based Vocational Curriculum in Jamaican Industrial Schools 1890 – 1940
Throughout the late nineteenth century, the Jamaican colonial government along with several religious institutions established a small network of Industrial Schools as well as a Reformatory to house criminal, destitute, and displaced juveniles. Advocates of the industrial school system argued that the goal of an industrial school education was to create good colonial citizens. A gender- based vocational oriented curriculum was promoted on the grounds that such an education enforced values of self-sufficiency and thrift. This curriculum differentiated industrial schools from its counterparts in the general education system. The main goal of school administrators was to re-socialize children to become productive citizens. Key to this process of re-socialization was the promotion of ideas such as self-sufficiency, loyalty, and obedience. These displaced delinquent and destitute children, eventually, could become successful farmers, artisans, mothers and fathers.
In spite of this, between 1890 and 1940, the number of industrial schools fluctuated as the colonial state closed schools for girls, due to low numbers, and increasingly provided support for private institutions that incorporated children into the main education system. This paper argues that the Jamaican colonial administration failed to implement necessary regulations to assess the quality of the education provided to wards of the state. Instead, I suggest that the lack of a systematic education policy, as it related to wards of the state, exacerbated tensions created by inadequate financial and human resources. As such, throughout the period, advocates of industrial school education lost ground as many schools closed and children were incorporated into the mainstream education system.
