THE EDITOR, Sir:
WITH REFERENCE to Dr. Hyacinth Evans' article entitled 'Dropout or Left out' published in The Sunday Gleaner, May 15, I endorse similar sentiments.
As a teacher at a junior high school located in a rural community, I have been confronting the horror for the past 10 years. After the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), we receive the underachievers in the grade seven classes. A few of them will apply themselves and work hard for the Junior High Certificate Examination. Some of them will gain places at the limited high and secondary schools. Well done to those students. On the other hand, the students who did not perform well on the examination will end school at grade nine (15 years). These students are left to the 'ruff weather' of crime, violence, drugs and teenage pregnancy as their best options. Can we continue like this?
What are we going to do with the students who cannot read and write at the grade nine level? No school including HEART will take them. Are they the next generation of criminals? Many have learning disabilities that the schools are not equipped to deal with. What type of citizens will these students become?
Please, Mr. Prime Minister and Minister of Education, revisit the education system. Add some more technical schools so that we can cater more for our students with different abilities. Not everybody can become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or a banker. Provide more training for the brick layers, mechanics, joiners and so on, because we need them to balance society. These students are our future. Invest in them in order for them to appreciate us later.
I am, etc.,
ANGELA MCLEOD
Hatfield Dist
Hatfield P.O
Manchester
