Martin Henry SO YOU are starting basic school this September morning? What are your chances of obtaining a degree like 17 years later? A lot depends on who your parents are, and even whether you are a boy or a girl. I don't want to frighten or discourage you as you step out. But to tell you the truth from now, the prospects of a college degree are not all that good. You will first have to learn to read and write well in standard English, and to count and calculate.
I was reading The Gleaner on Sunday. You know what they were saying in the newspaper? Only 31.4 per cent of students coming from your little school into grade 1 of big school, that is only one out of every three of the children in your class is showing that they have mastered all four skill areas needed to start primary education when they do the Grade 1 Readiness Test. At grade three they do another test called the Grade Three Diagnostic Test. The children who did it this year only 13.6 per cent of them showed mastery in all five skill areas of Language Arts, and a mere 3.8 per cent showed mastery in mathematics.
In Language, 38.3 per cent did not achieve mastery in any area and in mathematics it is 50.9 per cent, a half of all the students. At grade 4 the children do the Literacy Test. Only a little bit more than half the students (57.7 per cent) are showing mastery.
To see how well you do at primary school and to place you in high school, you will have to do the Grade Six Achieve-ment Test, the GSAT. This year 48 per cent were successful in mathematics, 52 per cent in Language Arts and 67 per cent in Communication Tasks. But whatever their score most children get into 'high' school. There are still some stuck in all-age school and some are assigned to Junior High Schools from both of which it is difficult to get back on to the degree track and many of these children get out of school at age 15, and that's it for them unless they get into HEART when they are 17.
But all high schools are not equal. You have the traditional high schools which are supposed to be better than the upgraded high school. The Government won't say how GSAT scores are used to determine which high school you are placed in. But students with high scores mostly get to go to their school of first choice which, of course, will be one of the name brand "better" ones.
NAME BRAND SCHOOLS
Dr. Minott and some other people decided that since we are grading students, why shouldn't we grade schools too? And they did just that using the results from the CXC exams. A whole heap of the schools, including fancy name brand schools, got Ds and Fs. After a big uproar, people are quietly realising that the schools need to give you a better chance to go on to college and get your degree. You have to pass your CXCs, at least five of them for college including English Language and mathematics. And the children and their schools haven't been doing well, you know. Your country has some of the worst CXC results. Less than 10 per cent of students taking the exam are getting those five subjects for college at one sitting. And you should see the percentage passes for this year reported in the same Sunday Gleaner! English, 39.2 per cent; mathematics, 24.8 per cent!
By the time you get to college most of the boys you are starting out with would have left the education system and most of the children of poorer people. As you start out on your school journey there is a big, big people discussion about financing education: how much from the budget, and where should get what. Last week-end the University of the West Indies, one of the many places now where you can do your degree in Jamaica, had a big conference on tertiary and higher education. Only about 20 per cent of children starting out like you will get beyond secondary school to any kind of higher education, and most of those won't be doing degrees. The money business was a major item of discussion at the conference. But they still can't agree how to share up the money for education.
A whole heap of the education money is wasted on teaching bigger children again what they should have learnt long time. The lady who runs the Ministry of Education told them at the conference that "the country needs to strike the right balance of resource allocation between all sectors of the education system." Despite all the problems in the education system, and the many children who fall out of it along the way, you can get that degree if you really want to and you work hard towards it.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
