The non-institutionalization of the use of self-instructional materials in primary schools in Jamaica: The case of Project PRIMER

Abstract

This paper focuses on an example of educational borrowing—the transfer of an educational innovation from South East Asia to the Caribbean: Jamaica’s Project for Improving Management of Educational Resources (PRIMER), which was initially influenced by the Philippine’s project IMPACT (Institutional Management by Parents, Community and Teachers). The main aim of the study is to explore the reasons why Project PRIMER, heralded with such hope and promise in 1979, had by 1984 vanished almost without a trace. The focus is on the use of self-instructional materials, it examines the extent to which planners took into consideration: 1) the main factors that research has identified as affecting implementation, and 2) planning for institutionalization. The paper considers the supports and threats to institutionalization and draws some implications from the PRIMER experience.