By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterFINGERPOINTING HAS begun in earnest in the education sector, following reports that the country's candidates had anaemic performances in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examinations for 2003, especially in key subject areas such as mathematics, English language and geography.
Most educators feel that the disappointing CXC results are a case of the 'chickens coming home to roost,' citing a raft of problems plaguing the sector. The chief among them being the large-scale migration of competent and qualified teachers, in key subject areas since 2000.
Ruth Wilson, executive director of the National Council on Education, believes that the impact of this migration must be properly examined.
THINGS WENT WRONG IN 2000
"Something went wrong in the year 2000, and we've just begun to see the impact now. The decline has manifested itself, we need sociologists to study this crisis in education and even how other social factors could have contributed to this poor performance."
Wentworth Gabbidon, Jamaica Teachers' Association president, agreed with Mrs. Wilson, adding that "we have always said that the migration affected the system. When you lose qualified, experienced people, it will
affect the system". When compared to last year's results, there was a 15.4 per cent declining pass rate in geography, an 11 per cent fall-off in English, an eight per cent drop in principles of business, while only one-third of candidates who sat mathematics received a passing grade.
Minister of Education, Youth and Culture, Maxine Henry-Wilson, tried to soften the impact of what educators have quietly dubbed a 'crisis in education'.
MORE INVESTMENTS
FOR EDUCATION
"One thing to bear in mind is that although the percentages are disappointing, in terms of straight numbers, far more sat subjects in the examinations and passed it than in previous years. What we are concerned with is that we don't seem to be catching up in areas of performance and that, after years of education, we don't seem to be producing students of a particular standard," Minister Henry-Wilson said.
Senator Anthony Johnson, opposition Spokesman on Education, urged that "more investments be pushed into education".
"It is not good to turn out students who have the feeling that they have failed, it's the system that has failed," he said.
There is a school of thought that "the students might have taken their exams for granted, because they got a free ride" ($70 million from the budget of the Ministry of Education was devoted to finance the Government's commitment to providing some CXC subjects free to thousands of 2003 students in subjects such as English, mathematics, information technology and one science subject).
Minister Henry-Wilson dismissed the suggestion, but added, "I'd be very disappointed if that were so, but it says something about the mentality of our students, I would think that given the opportunity, they would have wanted to make the most of it."
