Stephen Vasciannie
THE PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Teachers' Association has recently made various pronouncements about education, and in particular, about some of the things we need to do to improve the system.
The president argues with verve and enthusiasm; on the radio programmes that I have heard, he has also been articulate and knowledgeable. He will make his mark.
I wonder, though, if I could nudge him to make a different mark from the one that he seems most inclined to make at this time. Here is the problem: the JTA president has set out to demonstrate that: (a) our examination system at the secondary level is too difficult, and that (b) we should therefore work to make it easier for our students. I believe both legs of this contention are flawed.
EVIDENCE
The president establishes point (a) mainly by arguing that students who flounder in the Jamaican system often go to the United States and flourish. This, he concludes, demonstrates that we are overburdening our students at Grades 10 and 11 (at the CXC level, or what the experts call the CSEC.)
At least two other pieces of evidence are mentioned to support point (a). One is that students who struggle purposefully through the CXC and the Advanced Level or CAPE examinations eventually find that university work is a piece of cake. These students are then left wondering why they had to work so hard at an intermediate stage when tertiary education is so easy.
The other piece of evidence mentioned is that only some two per cent of the relevant age cohort in Jamaica actually succeeds at the Advanced Level or CAPE. If the 'successful' group is so small, this confirms that the standards are too high for the population of students.
The president also points out that our system is based on the British system, and that the British are coming to the realisation, or have realised, that the system is too hard for teenagers. He further makes the point that school-based assessments were meant to make the CXC easier, but that because school-based assessments are not used in English and mathematics, these core subjects continue to have high failure rates.
PIECE OF CAKE
Whether or not examinations at a particular level are too easy is essentially a subjective question. It seems to me, however, that the president's perspective would lead to a watering down of our standards, standards which are already far too dilute if Jamaica is to be competitive in the international environment.
Take the USA argument, for example. Yes, we know the phenomenon: floundering here, flourishing there. But, the president must ask whether the flourishing in the U.S.A. is at the same level as in Jamaica. The American system has institutions at different levels, so, of course, you can find a place which will be complimentary to you. But will you be challenged? And should we want our institutions to match places that go through the motions in education at very low levels? The answer to both questions must be no.
University work is a piece of cake? Here the president has turned logic on its head. If university work is easy for students who have come through the secondary system, that is as much a statement about university work as it is about secondary education. I do not wish to overgeneralise about this matter, and I work at a university; but, if the president is correct, this should mean that universities must raise standards. In that way students will find the tertiary experience more challenging and stimulating.
Only two per cent pass the Advanced Level? This again is not necessarily a sign that the examinations are too hard. Rather, it may be an indication that our students are not being adequately prepared for the examination, or that they underrate the examination and find out too late that their expectations are different from those of the examiners.
NOT COMFORTING
As to point (b), it is not comforting when the president of the teachers association tells you that the examinations are too difficult. This looks, ultimately, like an attempt to lower standards because teachers and students are ill-prepared.
To go back to the American link: it is beyond argument that when even our top students from the secondary system pursue science-based courses in good tertiary institutions in the USA, they are challenged to catch up at the outset. At risk of over-generalising again, our standards in science do not match leading American institutions.
Similarly, in the humanities, the high failure rates in English language say that we need to press students harder at the primary and secondary levels to ensure that the foundation is firmly in place.
The president should re-consider his position quickly. A book rental scheme at a tertiary institution tells students that "books are being rended at fourty (40 per cent) the going price at the bookshop". Res ipsa loquitor - the facts speak for themselves.
Stephen Vasciannie is a professor at the University of the West Indies and a consultant in the Attorney-General's chambers.
