IN THE midst of depressing news about Jamaica's overall education system it is refreshing to be able to congratulate Campion College, ten of whose students were awarded Government of Jamaica and UWI scholarships, sweeping the field. This hardly comes as a surprise because Campion College, along with Immaculate Conception High School, have consistently topped the list of best performing secondary schools based on the CXC examination results.In the current debate, performance of the system has been assessed on the basis of total passes including Grade III, the level at which most of the passes of the upgraded secondary schools are clustered. In the case of Campion, it is interesting to note that some 69 per cent of passes are at Grade I and 22 per cent at Grade II. Only about 6 per cent are at Grade III. No wonder then, when it comes to scholarships, the Campion students do so well.
There are certain irrelevancies which should not be allowed to cloud the debate. Of course Campion gets students from private and religious prep schools who do well on the GSAT primary school exams. Of course, the parents of Campion students tend to be affluent and can afford private tutoring for their children. They are also in a position to ensure the quality of teachers and to help with their salaries. But we must not fall into the sin of envy.
The affluent in any society will always take care of their own. Indeed they have a parental obligation to do so. Correspondingly, it is the obligation of the State to see to the proper education of the poor. This is where the system is falling down; only 4.2 per cent passes in mathematics and 9.5 per cent passes in English in non-traditional secondary schools in which 80 per cent of the total secondary school population is enrolled.
The success of traditional schools like Campion is not the cause of the failures of the non-traditional schools. The primary causal factor which determines success is the quality of the entrants into the primary school system which, in turn, flows into the secondary system. Only when the State makes early childhood education a priority and improves the standards of the Jamaican teaching profession, will all children, rich and poor, perform satisfactorily in the CXC exams. Teachers in the non-traditional secondary schools may be doing their best with what they have to work with but this is not solving a de facto problem.
In the meantime, the Campion scholarship winners will, hopefully, go on to great things, equipped to make a significant contribution to the Jamaican society. We wish them every success.
