Stephen VasciannieA FIRST-CLASS teacher has kindly sent a copy of the examination papers taken by students in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) last January. I look at them with trepidation: examination papers, even when viewed away from the oppressive circumstances of the examination centre, can still strike terror in the hearts of the prepared and unprepared.
Never mind, too, that this is a test for 10 and 11-year-olds. The GSAT is, in significant measure, the old Common Entrance Examination, with appropriate adjustments in the direction of modernity. And, as many people over 25 will tell you, the Common Entrance is the most difficult examination they have taken, save perhaps for the Cambridge 'A' Levels.
The Common Entrance had to be hard not only because it provided the main method of distinguishing students with a certain kind of intellectual aptitude from others, but also because, given intense pressure for places at prestigious schools, performance at this level could help significantly to determine your life chances.
So too it seems with the GSAT. This is not an examination for those skilled in the gentle art of bluffing the questions are specific, and certainly in relation to each of the four papers I have read, a wide field of knowledge is tested. When, therefore, results are published later this month, there will be every reason to celebrate the efforts of those who show mastery of the material, and the skill of the teachers who have guided students through the thickets of reasoning and calculation placed before them.
If memory serves me right, in the older days of the Common Entrance, there was no testing of knowledge concerning Science and Social Studies. This, I believe, reflected the preconception that these subjects did not easily allow for uniform standards of assessment at the pre-secondary level: for example, what, exactly, should one teach 10-year-olds about Jamaican geography as part of a process of external testing? What level of knowledge about plant structures should young children reasonably be expected to have? And, how can we guarantee that all schools are singing from the same hymn sheet?
But reservations on this point have been overcome, and this is all to the benefit of our students. It should be noted, however, that both the Social Studies and Science papers can be tricky. For example, Question 71 on the Social Studies paper for this year asks: "Which of the following settlements is a fishing village? (A) Rocky Point, (B) Claremont, (C) Highgate, or (D) Southfield." At what age in your life could you confidently support item (A), and how does such a specific question fit into the primary school curriculum, I find myself wondering.
REFERENCE BOOK
Again, Question 52 on the Science paper sent me to the reference books. It asks: "Which of the following is NOT a primary colour of light? (A) blue, (B) yellow, (C) green, (D) red." The Chambers Encyclopaedia, well-beloved by Schools' Challenge aficionados, indicates in its section on Science and Technology that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue, so, I assumed initially that the correct answer was (C). But then, a specific site on the Internet distinguishes the primary colours in general from the primary colours of light. The latter are red, blue and green; and so, the correct answer is really (B). Not impossible for the 11-year-old down the road, mark you; but not a cake walk either.
Sometimes examinations betray a particular set of cultural biases. Thus, in days of old, many Jamaicans were undoubtedly more conversant with the cities and towns of Britain than about rainfall patterns in the Caribbean. The GSAT papers are, quite correctly, more homeward bound, though perhaps not completely unbiased. Question 36, Social Studies: "Which of the following dances is part of the African culture? (A) Kumina, (B) Cha cha, (C) Calypso, (D) Reggae." Now, I put it to you that although the examiner wants (A), a good argument can surely be made - and has been -- to the effect that both Calypso and Reggae reflect African cultural retentions. Are they then not part of African culture?
Question 51, Social Studies, raises a similar type of issue. "With which country is calypso associated? (A) Jamaica, (B) Barbados, (C) St. Kitts and Nevis, or (D) Trinidad and Tobago." Clearly, the examiner wants (D); however, is it really correct to suggest that Calypso is not associated with St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados or Jamaica. The carnival rhythms even in Kingston reflect some degree of association with music that originated in Trinidad, no doubt.
TRADITIONAL STAPLES
The English Language and Mathematics papers, traditional staples, also test students with a rather wide range of questions - and so, (s)he who masters these papers will have a solid foundation for secondary school. With respect to English Language, however, I have some reservations about reliance on multiple-choice questions as a strong guide to knowledge. Such questions do not really test the student's powers of written expression, and, though the GSAT also has an essay writing component, the bulk of the marks for English Language are picked up in the multiple choice section.
Also, the use of multiple choice questions for English Language forces the examiner to rely on artificial means of testing. Consider, for instance, Questions 8 to 10, English Language. For all three, the candidate is asked which word correctly completes the following sentence.
-- "8. The workmen cleaned _______ tools." Among the options are the words "his" and "their". The examiner clearly wants "their", but it seems to me that the workmen could well clean "his" tools, depending on the context of the sentence.
"9. The price of the book is thirty dollars, _______, students can get a discount of ten per cent." Options here include "however" and "therefore". The examiner expects the word "however" to be inserted; but, again depending on context, is it not possible that the word "therefore" could be used in the sentence.
"10. I accepted the job offer _______ I was unemployed." Options available include "but" and "since". Of course, you may think that the answer must be "since". And yet, if the speaker is being sarcastic, or if (s)he is pointing out a paradoxical situation, the word "but" would probably do just fine, thank you very much.
Three artificial questions wrong, from among the first ten, and your Government Scholarship is gone. At least for English Language, more emphasis could be placed on writing skills, though this would require more resources for marking.
The next big, external examination, CXC or the Common Exit, places more emphasis on writing skills. But for that one, you should pray that the Jamaican rains come later in the year.
Stephen Vasciannie, a UWI lecturer, is currently Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge University.
