THE EDITOR, Sir:
IN REGARDS to the letter of the day, "A higher priority" published on December 2, 2002 in The Gleaner, I would like to say that for quite some time I have also been doing my own research on the level of literacy in our Junior and High School, and while I share Mr. Gayle's concern about the number of illiterate school-leavers I must bring to his attention my findings.
While I am in agreement that more needs to be done to eradicate the number of illiterate students that are leaving school, we cannot place all the blame at the feet of teachers.
I went to a prominent Technical High school to find out how my son was doing academically in school, and if he would be eligible to take the upcoming CXC exams and was told by one of his teachers that in a class of 30 students only 10 of them showed any interest in the subject being taught, fortunate for me my son is in the 10.
She says that she has tried everything to get the others involved but to no avail.
In this scenario, can you therefore say, Mr. Gayle, that this teacher has not tried? I don't think so; I happened to question my son on the matter when he came home and was told that most of the children who show little or no interest are the ones who come to school late consistently, do no work in class when they are there (which happens to be rare), talk the most in class and are the most disrespectful.
We cannot as a people blame others for our mistakes. It is time for parents to play a more integral part in their children's school life.
Some of them only ever visit the school once and that is when the child is enrolled in the school; they have never been to a PTA meeting, they have never been to a parents day, an open day or a report day at their child's school.
If we as parents do not take the time out to show interest in our children's performance/behaviour how do we expect a teacher who has to monitor 30-40 students to be able to do so?
Do not get me wrong, Mr. Gayle, there are teachers who only join the teaching profession because of the salary, but there are those who are in the profession because of the love for humanity and the job itself.
These are the ones who hurt the most, when they are trying so hard to help your child and mine to get a good education and because of indiscipline and lack of parents' support have "been given basket to carry water."
We need to take responsibility for our mistakes and stop trying to blame others.
I am, etc.,
AMOORE JOHNSON
Priscillamore2000@yahoo.com
