By Herbert L. Brown, ContributorI WRITE in response to the Prime Minister's pronouncement to make a 'comprehensive overhaul of the education system'.
First, I want to suggest that it is now late in the day, but not 'too late'. With a will to make radical changes where desirable and to eliminate the undesirable we can still make it.
Any such reform, however, must be underpinned by meticulous and exhaustive research as well as a tenable educational philosophy. It must have cultural relevance. It must not be short-sighted, but must carry short-term as well as long-term achievement targets.
While student achievement will undoubtedly be the number one priority the New Plan must seek to strike a balance between ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT and PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT with specific reference to promoting as a SENSE of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY among our student population; and it must be a significant element in student certification.
This sense of responsibility should help reduce the need for the volume of patch-work which has been introduced into the curriculum in recent times. I refer to patches such as tourist harassment, values and attitudes, and so forth. These behaviours should be outcomes which flow naturally from a people with 'a sense of responsibility'.
FINDING THE WINNING FORMULA
It means that the system will have to find the formula to reinforce this same sense of responsibility among the leadership in education as the student will seek to replicate what the influential teacher portrays. And, this will have implications for teacher training and assessment.
Historically, we have produced some of the best teachers in the world. And, perhaps because of this grand achievement record we have taken our teachers for granted. "O, yes, they are there and they are good!' The system must once again look to its teachers to lift the country out of the dilemma in which we have found ourselves. And this dilemma is not just poor CXC results and poor GSAT performances: The dilemma reaches out into crime and violence, particularly among our young males.
The challenge is how do we re-establish our teachers in the front seat of our society? How do we help them regain lost ground socially, morally, spiritually and intellectually? In effect, how do we restore their lost influence in the society, and hence their impact on the lives of all our people?
I suggest that the teacher is the key variable in any forward looking educational development plan at this time.
Herbert L. Brown, M.A. (Stanford), is former headmaster of deCarteret College in Manchester.
