Howard Campbell, Contributor 
Students from the Elletson Primary School doing their GSAT exam at Jessie Ripoll Primary school on South Camp Road in Kingston in March. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer
BY THE time this piece is published, my niece Tiffany would have sat her Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) examinations the seventh test administration, having been piloted in 1999. If Lady Luck is on her side, she will be among the one of 240 students 'selected' to attend the 'gold standard' of secondary
educational institutions in the
country Campion College. Tiffany is only one youngster whose life has been or will be impacted by the National Assessment Programme, more
particularly GSAT.
For Jamaican preteens, the period leading up to the GSAT examinations is inarguably one of the most stressful periods of their young lives. In a few fleeting months,
they were expected to internalise thousands of seemingly useless, unrelated facts that must be
regurgitated in a prescribed manner to keep them from the prospect of gracing the halls of 'dunce-bat' schools.
THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (NAP)
The National Assessment Programme, a component of the now concluded Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP), sets out to assess the academic achievement of students at the primary level. Four assessments are done throughout the course of the
programme Grade One Readiness Inventory, Grade Three Diagnostic Test, Grade Four Literacy Test and GSAT.
If we were living in Utopia, the tests given under the programme would tell students, teachers and parents how well a student is
performing for their age and grade level. The teacher and principal would then use these results to identify the areas in which the
student is doing well, and the areas in which they need more assistance. They would then work with parents to correct any weaknesses that
students may have.
Students, having benefited from these corrections, would then
perform well during, and at the end of primary schooling, and should be able to cope more easily with work at the secondary level. To the best of my knowledge, Tiffany has been through the other three tests, but this is Jamaica, she did the tests and that is where the story seems to have ended.
Near the end of Grade 6,
students are given the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in mathematics, language arts, aocial atudies, acience and writing. The Mathematics Test checks students' ability to use numbers, to compute, to measure and estimate; to
organise and interpret information in tables or graphs, and to recognise basic geometric shapes. Students are tested in language arts to see
how well they understand and use standard English when reading and writing.
The writing task also
assesses students' ability to do
simple tasks such as organise a paragraph or fill out a form, and do more creative tasks such as write a report, letter or story. Knowledge of people, where they live and how they work and organise themselves are assessed in social studies. The science test measures students' knowledge and understanding of their natural and physical environment, for example, living things, rocks and soils, machines, sound and light.
Theoretically, no special
preparation is needed for the GSAT. All the subjects tested are already a part of the course of study in schools, and questions are asked based on the work that students should have been doing every day. Truth be told, I find the content to be extraneous. The harsh reality, though, is that it is scores that serve as the currency used to purchase seats in the secondary school
system. Consequently, parents spend tens of thousand of dollars for "extras", during which time
students are coached and prepped ad nauseam.
MORE STUDENTS THAN SEATS
Tiffany is but one of 50,800
students in the primary school
system who were expected to face the examiners on March 17 and 18. You know Lady Luck is on your side when you not only get placed in a secondary school, but also
get a place in one of the elitist
institutions. For those who are unlucky, they will be in the
company of thousands more who failed to gain a place in the public secondary school system. Boys and girls are placed in secondary school
depending on a number of factors, the weighting of each clouded in uncertainty.
The factors are (1) their
performance on the GSAT, (2) the choice of school as stated by
parents on the registration form, and (3) how near the school is to the student's home. Parents have their selection factors too. The
factor with the most weighting, in my mind, without even the slightest empirical data to substantiate, is the school type. Parents will invariably go for a traditional high school, one with a superb track record of high academic achievement to boot. Whether the school is single sex or co-educational just may be a distant second, with the location of the school possibly not far behind at third.
Given five choices, parents
will invariably select as their first option a school accessible
geographically that is noted for excellent all-round performance. I am yet to come across a parent who has made an upgraded school his/her first choice. What we now have is literally thousands of students opting for a space at the few schools that are consistently top performers in the CXC examinations. These schools, for the most part, perform consistently well in co-curricular activities on and off the field. The bidding for these few places is so fierce that it is literally the top 5 per cent that will end up in these schools. No surprise then that over the past decade or so, Campion College has become the most sought after secondary school islandwide.
NAME BRAND SCHOOLS
Writing in The Gleaner (March 28, 2003), Martin Henry reminded us that "envied name brand schools were not created overnight." He continued by suggesting that "strong visionary leadership,
usually long-serving, focused goal-setting, discipline, team-building and motivation, ethos, rewarding performance and results, building customer/stakeholder loyalty and support" were responsible. In light of all this, I suppose the least the National Assessment Programme can do is to send the best students we've got to the best schools. In a situation where places are limited, achievements tests begin to mimic selection tests.
ACHIEVEMENT OR SELECTION TEST
Placement in 'name brand' schools (to borrow the term from Minister Henry-Wilson) like Campion College, Immaculate or Montego Bay High is no mean feat. It would have required that you had scores that were substantially above the national average. A quick glance at the average scores (of
students placed at the respective schools) in relation to the national averages confirms this view.
From all indications, GSAT seems to be somewhat of a slightly disfigured double to the Common Entrance Examination, the only apparent difference being the names. To the best of my limited knowledge (limited by the state's ability or willingness to provide information, even in light of the Access to Information Act), the only indication a GSAT student has of their achievement or lack thereof is his/her placement or non-placement in a secondary school. Very little else happens. No detailed report is passed on to
parents to indicate areas of
performance.
Minister Henry-Wilson is on record as having said that "having implemented it (GSAT), we now see what works and what doesn't work so we now have to do whatever adjustments are needed to make sure the objectives of the GSAT is not just a placement exam, (but) it enhances the entire learning process by the students."
All the evidence is pointing in one direction and strongly suggests that GSAT really should have been GSST Grade Six Selection Test, or better yet, GSPT Grade Six Placement Test. The truth is GSAT sounds nicer.
PROMISES
According to the Task Force on Educational Reform Final Report, "GSAT results are used primarily for placement. A performance
profile for each student is not
provided so many schools
administer their own diagnostic test to incoming Grade 7 students to guide curriculum implementation." The report has made a number of recommendations which, if
implemented, could impact
positively on the effectiveness of the National Assessment Programme. At the time of
writing, it was reported in The Gleaner (Thursday, March 31) that the one-member transformation team had commenced work at the Cabinet Office. We wish her all the best. While we await the additional members of the team, we look
forward to the review of the Grade Six Achievement Test promised by the Education Minister in October last year.
