Weak system reproducing itself

Stephen Vasciannie

SEVERAL PEOPLE have responded to my recent columns on education, written primarily with reference to statistics set out in the book titled Performance of Jamaican Students in the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) 2001 (published by the National Council on Education). Generally, the responses underline the deep concern of many citizens about what is happening in the education sector, and many persons have offered proposals on how the problems should be addressed.

Some correspondents have also pointed out that although I have highlighted the nature and extent of the problems within the educational sector, I have not fully discussed the causes of the current crisis. This is a fair point. My primary objectives have been: (a) to promote broad consideration of the performance level in our secondary schools by highlighting prevailing realities; and (b) to counter, by statistical analysis, the emerging myth that the academic performance of students at upgraded secondary schools is generally comparable with performance in traditional secondary schools.

Today, then, it may be appropriate to examine more fully the factors that explain the current crisis at some of our schools.

ALPHA IS IN

Before doing so, however, I should offer an apology to the Convent of Mercy Academy (Alpha) for excluding that school from Table 1 in last week's column which listed the Top 20 schools in terms of performance levels in CXC English language for 2001 ('Towards Top Schools'). Alpha was not listed among the Top 20 Schools because, according to the statistics from the National Council on Education, the percentage of students passing CXC English language from Alpha in the June 2001 examination was 76 per cent (that is, 266 students took the examination, and 201 passed). The stated pass rate of 76 per cent placed Alpha just below Kingston College, which was ranked as 20th in English language with a pass rate of 78 per cent.

The principal of Alpha, Mackran Singh, has, however, kindly written to point out ­ with documentary support ­ that the pass rate for Alpha for June 2001 was actually 89 per cent. The number of students taking the English language examination at Alpha was 226, not 266, and so, the pass rate listed in my source document is an understatement. Table 1 in last week's column should have placed Alpha at ninth place in the list of Top 20 Schools for English Language, just following MoBay High and immediately above Morant Bay High.

Morant Bay High and the schools ranked below it in Table 1 would move one place down the list, and Kingston College, listed as Number 20 for English language would fall into position Number 21 and, therefore, off the list. I intended no disrespect for Alpha, and should say, particularly with reference to its pass rate of 89 per cent, that its performance in English language is highly commendable.

UNDERLYING CAUSES

Some of the persons responding to my earlier columns have taken the view that the underlying causes of the current problems in education are to be found at teachers' colleges. The line of argument here is that some of these institutions receive a significant number of mediocre students from secondary schools, and though they make strong efforts to correct basic weaknesses among those students, they do not always succeed. Weak graduates from the teachers' college system then go on to produce weak students in primary and secondary schools, and in this way, the system reproduces itself.

In supporting this perspective, one correspondent, a retired lecturer from a well-known teachers' college, has emphasised that in some cases, even the students at school recognise the grammatical and other errors made by trainee teachers during teaching practice, and burst forth into laughter. He also notes that at one teachers' college, at least until recently, English language was not taught as a separate subject; thus, for some graduates, the level of formal training in English language for future teachers stopped at the CXC level. A mediocre system reproducing itself...

There is much truth in the perception that teachers' colleges must help us to find a way out of the current quagmire, but, without systematic evidence one way or the other, I am reluctant to cast primary, or even significant, responsibility for our educational problems in their direction. More specifically, it seems to me that teachers' colleges, like upgraded and traditional secondary schools, are really elements in the educational chain that are inheriting problems produced at an earlier stage in the process.

Statistics from the primary school sector tend to bear out this conclusion. In the first sitting of the Grade Four Literacy Test administered by the Ministry of Education, the results were startling. With respect to reading and comprehension, students were placed into one of three categories based on performance, namely: (a) questionable status; (b) at risk; and (c) enrichment (not at risk). Overall, 41,128 students from 793 primary schools took the test, and on an analysis of data from the vast majority of the schools, it was found that 18.5 per cent were in the category of questionable status, 30.8 per cent were at risk, and 50.7 per cent were in the enrichment category.

Thus, at the Grade Four level, almost 50 per cent of the students who took the test did not fully satisfy the examiners as to their facility with the rudiments of literacy. Many students are, therefore, floundering from the early stages in the process, and this, to me, is where the root causes of the educational crisis are to be found.

Social factors

A number of correspondents agree that the problems of the sector set in at an early stage, but urge broader consideration of the social factors involved. So, for instance, one correspondent has urged that the central issue is really one of social class, and that young students who go to school hungry, or who miss school regularly for economic reasons, cannot be expected to flourish academically. All this is true, although it does not provide the entire picture: several schools, at both primary and secondary levels, make serious efforts to provide meals and other forms of support for students, and still find that performance levels remain sluggish.

In addition to class factors, then, we should also add the basic issue of social attitudes to education. Many Jamaicans still take pride in the fact that their children are more educated than they happen to be, and view education as integral to social and personal progress. But, at the same time, there are countervailing tendencies that seem to work most perniciously against boys and young men in society.

Thus, where financial success sometimes seems more coherently linked to deejaying ability, donmanship or 'juggling' skills, the role model is not the teacher, and the peer group leader is not the conscientious student. And, in these circumstances, many students may simply be dismissing the value of education. Add to that poor teaching in some cases, the many diversions of modern society, and the depressing conditions at some schools, and we will have in place a stronger understanding of how a weak educational system is reproducing itself.

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