Why has higher education not transformed Jamaica

This is the question on the lips of many. Is it that we are educating people in the wrong field.

For example why does a small country like Jamaica need so many lawyers, why do we need to produce so many lawyers and what value do they add the Jamaican economy?

Based on Data from the General Legal Council Jamaica has 1248 registered and practicing lawyers.

On the Technical side and data from the Professional Engineering Registered Board, Jamaica has 421 registered ( not necessarily practicing) Engineers.

With a population of lets say 2.7 million people the ratios are looking like this.

Ratio of people to lawyer is 1890 persons per lawyer

Ratio of people to Engineers is 6413 persons per Engineer.

I suspect the ratio of people to Engineers is over 10,000 to one as many who are registered are not practicing

Clearly we have a problem in this country with the number of Technical people , which is what a developing country needs if it really intends to move forward.

Many lawyers are in politics and so you have two professions where the reputation is less than admirable, then we wonder why Jamaica never appears to be on a path to economic growth and development.

We simply do not have enough of the our people trained in the right areas.

Jamaica needs more engineers and technicians and this is where we must focus our spending if we intend to have sustained growth and development.