Updated October 2026. October 2026: narrowed the 2015 workshop to the JN Foundation iLead session reported by the Jamaica Observer, and added EMIS, CSEC pass rates and the Data Protection Act from JIS.
We started Balcostics with the mission to "empower decision makers with the required data and information to make better decisions". In that spirit, the March 2015 note picked up a presentation by Dr Maurice Smith, then principal of the National College for Educational Leadership.
The note described the room as principals, vice-principals and education officers from across Jamaica. The warning it quoted is the warning the Jamaica Observer (2015) printed from Dr Smith on 3 April 2015, three days after the note. The Observer's account of the room is narrower. The workshop was in Port Maria, St. Mary, under the JN Foundation iLead programme. The leaders in the room were from Brimmer Vale High and Islington High in St. Mary, and from Robert Lightbourne High in St. Thomas, together with education officers from the Ministry's Region Two.
Smith's warning was practical. "When making decisions for everybody, somebody is going to be uncomfortable. Therefore, you have to ensure that you make decisions based on the data you have…. When you are making a decision, look at all the information you have to make that decision. If tomorrow newer information becomes available that would make you revise the decision you made yesterday, that's fine, but you can't make decisions in a vacuum."
He closed the point in the same terms. "We can't make decisions based on who we like and who we think is with us or not with us and perceptions. The information has to be anchored in something."
That anchor is information produced by collecting and analysing data. He was speaking to education. The test he set still belongs there. He was principal of NCEL when he spoke. By May 2016, JIS described him as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information (JIS, 2016).
The 2015 note also pointed to the wider data writing of that period. It named books such as Big Data and Lean Analytics, and the Harvard Business Review piece that called the data scientist the sexiest job of the 21st century. In July 2022, Thomas H. Davenport and DJ Patil asked whether that label still held. The Harvard Business Publishing summary (2022) of their article says firms now have to build and manage data-science teams, instead of looking for one person who can do every part of the job.
The Data Protection Act was passed in 2020 and took effect on 1 December 2023. In December 2023, Fayval Williams, Minister of Education and Youth, told principals that the school system holds personal data on students, parents and teachers. She said a breach can draw a heavy fine, and that schools need systems for the data they collect (JIS, 2023).
The Ministry is putting in an Education Management Information System so leaders can monitor students in real time and act on problems such as absenteeism (JIS, 2025). In August 2026, Susan Nelson Smith, Regional Director for Region Five, told principals to audit exam data down to the learning objective. Her examples were fractions in grade six and narrative writing in grade 11. She told them to use EMIS to track attendance. She also told them not to stop at the overall pass rate (JIS, 2026).
The headline rate is only the start of that audit. In the May/June 2025 CSEC sitting, 85 per cent of Jamaican students passed English A and 44 per cent passed Mathematics. In 2024 the figures were 76 per cent and 39 per cent (JIS, 2025). A school that stops on those two numbers has not yet done what Smith asked.
Updated October 2026
- The audience is the JN Foundation iLead workshop in Port Maria reported by the Jamaica Observer on 3 April 2015. The 2015 post had called it a gathering of school leaders from across Jamaica.
- The 2012 Harvard Business Review line is now read with Davenport and Patil's July 2022 article, including the Harvard Business Publishing summary of that article. EMIS, the Data Protection Act, and the 2024 and 2025 CSEC English A and Mathematics pass rates are from JIS. A 2016 JIS report is cited for Smith's move to Permanent Secretary.
- The share request and the services advertisement at the end of the original post were removed.