THE EDITOR, Sir:
FOR THE last few years I've been noticing that persons in the educational system only notice how much our educational system is decaying when the CXC results are in (especially in Math & English).
I am in my early 20s and can clearly recall when I was attending primary school, teachers actually cared if we learned or not. When I was in the sixth grade the teacher realised that the normal school hours were not enough for us to go through the entire Common Entrance Examination syllabus and hence recommended extra classes in the evenings. That actually helped many of us who may not have understood something taught during the regular class hours.
There is now a situation where students are graduating from non-traditional high schools and are unable to read. How were they able to pass an exam from a primary school initially in order to be accepted into another school? How then can we be so hypocritical and pretend as if we don't know that these problems exist until CXC results come in?
What we need however, are teachers who love what they are doing. There are many who teach because they didn't have any other options. Even though they are good at what they do, they do not love what they do. For that reason the swift will become swifter and the slow will remain slow because no one cares enough.
I am, etc.,
KERI-ANN SALMON
Kerita3@excite.com
Lititz district
Watson's Hill P.O.
Manchester
Via Go-Jamaica
