- FILE
Students prepare for CXC mathematics at Maths Unlimited.
Lauriston Lindsay, Contributor
THE CXC 'flop' for many Jamaican high schools continues, according to Dr. Ralph Thompson's recent findings based on the 2004 C-SEC results. The holistic view (explicable only by reference to the whole) on what is happening in especially our modern high schools (re-classified schools), the technical high schools, and yes, some of the so-called traditional high schools, is not being given any credence.
The research revealed poor performance by our traditional high, modern high and technical high schools in two core subjects - English Language and Mathematics, based on the cohort of students who should have taken the examination and not as was usually done on the number of students who were sent up by the principals of these schools as being able to attempt these examinations.
From that point of view the findings appear chilling indeed. It forces us to face many unpleasant realities about our education system which some of us would rather avoid. Clearly we will not be able to matriculate the many more thousands of quality candidates we need for our colleges and universities who will graduate to be the quality scientists, inventors, environmentalists, and 'aggressive' entrepreneurs the country so badly needs to advance economically, with these depressing results at the secondary level.
While I subscribe to the position that we "should never let it rest until our good is better and our better best", I must suggest that with the present sorry state early childhood education is in, for some schools it is going to take some doing for the cohort of grade eleven (11) students in the short term to be sitting the core subjects - English, Mathematics, a Science subject, and Information Technology, plus two or three more subjects with acceptable results at CXC; especially with the present stance of no alternative examination or path to careers world-wide or to begin with, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
THE STARK REALITY
Is our secondary system in its present state going to continue to be measured by this CXC 'one shot' deal? Have we ever given thought to what could be proven a fact that English is a language to be practised, not studied? Let us face the stark reality that in more and more dwellings the language of preference is Patois. There is competition between Patios and English, for many English is a second language, even an imposition. Therefore, we could very well have levels of attainment in communicating the English Language based on the career path a student so desires to take. How many persons working a '9 to 5' are ever going to be writing stories using imagery, metaphors, analogies, etc. - the figurative devices?
While it may be desirable for a housekeeper in a hotel to have CXC certification in English, it could well be that a house-keeper's assistant could get by at some level lower, as long as he/she displays the competence to communicate with his/her intended public. For a welding fabricator, CXC Mathematics would be most desirable; a welding fabricator's assistant (welder) though, could get by with competence in Mathematics at a lower yet acceptable level.
I would not in this age of technology advocate the lowering of standards or compromising standards; we are in need of a competent workforce that can access opportunities in the CSME and world-wide for that matter, but there are units of the CXC syllabuses that are pertinent to particular trades that could be lifted, sequenced and delivered to good effect and I speak to English and Mathematics in particular.
Should an individual so desire to advance in his/her field then you may have to deal with other units of the various syllabi that so apply for his/her upward mobility. The ideal, the standard of every high school student attaining six or seven subjects at the end of four or five years of secondary schooling is a plausible argument, but in order for this to be obtained there has to be articulation between the primary schools (Grades 1-6) and the high schools; and between the junior high/all age (Grade 7-9) and the technical high schools. The students must be qualified to move from one level of the school system to the other and, for that matter from one grade to the next.
SKILLS-BASED EDUCATION
Why do I speak of varying acceptable levels of competence in 'language' and Mathematics? I suspect that many of my countrymen and women may not be aware that there are several thousands of our students in our modern high schools who are pushing at Grade Nine or Grade Ten to acquire entry level skills for the world of work and not necessarily pushing to matriculate for tertiary education. To this end these students are exposed to the world of work through the work experience component of their programme, something that should be explored at the school I serve, since it is now obvious that we are not to get anytime soon, students who can handle the 'grammar' type pursuits of the traditional high schools.
The work experience discipline allows for a student to get meaningful insights into the career path he/she has chosen, be it cosmetology, building construction, business, the hospitality trades, agriculture and so on. They get to practice aspects of what they are being taught in school; they having to complete a set number of hours at the exercise.
We must meet the students where they are at. CXC may not be for many of our secondary students. I am sure as we are doing at Happy Grove that there are several progressive educators who while valuing a good general education at the secondary level are just being down right practical in exploring good alternative options to empower our youth; until the Reform of Primary Education (R.O.P.E.) happens for real. The strengthening of early childhood education to include the lowering of the '60 to 1' pupil/teacher ratio that exists in our primary schools must come to ensure that literacy becomes the norm and not the exception in our schools. Too many of our people have difficulty using ATM machines or anything that is technology driven.
There is also the need to motivate the teaching force; bright people must be attracted to the profession and paid well. It is heartening to note that there is a move to reimburse the tuition fee of students who satisfactorily complete Science and Mathematics options in our Teacher's Colleges. We really need to get it right or the prospects of having order and goodwill among the citizenry will continue to be severely hampered.
In the meantime, all high schools that must continue to entertain illiterates must have on their establishment trained reading teachers with the number of teachers to students needing this intervention being determined by the cohort of students who cannot read or are reading at unacceptable levels. The attendant resource materials should naturally be in place. All other staff members must be given the necessary training to treat with the non-readers they will encounter, and those of us secondary teachers who deem it infra dig to be teaching illiterates must get out of that mind set. If we are going to be contributors to making our society once again having a top class, decent work force; with 'Reggae Boyz', 'Sunshine Girls', awesome cricketers and world beaters in track and field athletics to boot we must deal with these students where we get them.
DISAPPOINTING
I am very disappointed that there are teachers in our system that must face children without having the proper training in the subject they impart. To make matters worse, when they do go off for upgrading instead of doing so in the subject area for which they have been timetabled over the years they end up at university doing Administration and Supervision, or Guidance Counselling and even International Law in order to get graduate trained salary. Not that such pursuits will not benefit the organisation somewhat, but our students should also be beneficiaries of further studies on the part of their teachers.
I would really like to be one of the educators presiding over the demolition of the continued mediocrity in education while continuing to do all that must be done to encourage scholarship. We would love to be contributing to the modern day 'new deal' (Sir John Peter Grant 1866), in education where we can look forward with a certainty that much more than a mere five schools are able to attain a 50 per cent and over pass rate in mathematics. English is a shade better in the present climate, but its existence as the official and first language is threatened, and I reiterate - English ought to be practised and not solely studied.
I agree with the position that high schools ought to span grades 7 - 11 and for some, grades 12 and 13 where those schools have the pre-university programme. Technical schools ought to range from grade 10 -13 a position that some educators frown upon as they see the elimination of potential athletes in grade 7 - 9 as posing problems for their sports programs. Sports programmes must be encouraged and institutionalised as part of our culture; it must be allowing many to prosper as professional sportsmen and women, physiotherapists, coaches and the like - CXC Physical Education, Great!
Additional obstacles to high achievement in our schools relates to what I call the 'house vs home syndrome'. I see a house as being any place where one can shelter from the elements, regardless of how humble or fabulous that structure might be. A home, on the other hand, is an ordered group of human beings who exude decency, living together in a house be it humble or fantastic their main aim being to allow all, especially the children in that home to develop to their best potential. Morality, education, respect for others in and outside of the home and a genuine care for each other's well-being are the guiding principles, the foundation of that family in the home.
There are too many of our children who are living in 'houses' where they have been literally abandoned, regardless of there being adults in those 'houses' or not. Bluntly put, they are left to their own devices. Such children should be removed from such abodes and boarded. Boarding should be revisited to save lives from going down the drain.
The long distances children had to travel to school-and still do-the poor transportation system that still obtains today; the illiteracy, the evident malnourishment, the ascendancy of the use of foul language until it has become a matter of course; the 'stove-less' houses-catch a box food on the corner phenomenon"; the sexual harassment by some fathers and some step-fathers of their daughters in the homes, is higher than we could imagine. Is this problem of incest unique only to the poor in society? As we speak of poor there are 'so-called' traditional high schools who do not have any 'upper class' students in attendance, some middle class, yes, but mostly poor with several having self-esteem problems, having to carry too much baggage.
I dare to suggest that each parish should have at least two boarding schools: one for boys and one for girls with adjoining campuses, for example, Munro and Hampton. This would facilitate more organised 'prep' time; the extinction of problems with punctuality and malnourishment because students would be given three square meals, and the dress code would be spot on; there would be organised socials; structured sports and extra-curricular programmes; worship time without fail everyday; duty and chores - a sense of family, a home; and work-study.
