THE EDITOR, Sir:
In recent weeks I have been made aware of the contents of a CXC C-Sec Draft Syllabus of examination in Literature (English B) after 2005.
After reading its contents I was left disheartened, saddened and angry. As a student and teacher of literature, I feel that CXC is doing our students a great disservice by what is outlined as the proposed course for the future study of literature at the secondary level.
The draft syllabus outlines a two-hour exam paper accounting for 60 per cent of total marks. This paper is divided into three sections spanning the three genres of literature. Section A is devoted to the study of drama and consists only of questions from two Shakespearean texts. Section B, "Prose Fiction", consists of questions from two West Indian novels, that's all. And of course Section C is comprised of questions based on a selection of poems.
From my engagement with this draft document I'm sorely disappointed with CXC and their seeming lack of sensitivity to the needs of our students in an increasingly globalised society. They also seem to be ignorant of the strides literature, specifically literary writing, has made over the past several decades.
How can we say to our students that the only dramatist worthy of study is Shakespeare and the only type of prose they ought to engage with is West Indian? What about notable playwrights like Miller (American) and Rhone (Jamaican) as well as African writers like Achebe? Are we saying that at the end of the grade 10 and 11 programme
our students will leave school with only knowledge of two Shakespearean plays and two West Indian novels? What about those students who will never move beyond the study of Literature at the CXC C-Sec level? Is that all they leave with?
Clearly CXC is working on subverting the efforts made by thousands of classroom teachers, to expose our students to the wealth of information and creativity to be experienced in our wider global society.
I am, etc.,
GENNETTE GREEN
gen_green@lycos.com
c/o Bridgeport High School
Gibson Road
St. Catherine
Via Go-Jamaica
