THE EDITOR Sir,
THE NEW Year brings with it the new school term leading up to the GSAT exam. Last year after the CXC results the usual debate on the state of education ensued and the question of the placement of children resurfaced.
While this warrants some consideration it is not where we need to begin focusing our attention if we are to solve some of the problems in the educational system. A relevant experiment if we could in good conscience gamble with the lives of children, would be to place a group of high-scoring GSAT students in a newly upgraded high school and compare their progress with similar scoring students placed at Campion or Immaculate.
Urgent attention should be given not to how placement should be organised but to how the existing sub-standard facilities present in too high a percentage of our schools can be improved so that all children irrespective of where they are placed will have access to an acceptable quality of education.
Failing this, the future in education will continue to be characterised by the under-achievement of the majority interspersed with brilliant performances of a small minority.
I am, etc.,
PATRICIA CASTRIOTA
alibaba@anngel.com
Kingston 20
Via Go-Jamaica
