TODAY'S LETTER of the Day on the page opposite points to a crisis in education which has been growing at the root of the system and may well be escaping the highest levels of policy projection.
This letter from a high school teacher in Jamaica is a stark exposé of the fact that some children at that level cannot spell words as simple as 'me' and 'cat'.
This is not the first indication of a crisis that needs urgent attention. An earlier Letter of the Day published on November 2, made the point that the Junior Schools' Challenge Quiz aired on television is revealing the poor standard of preparedness of children at this level for higher education. The writer made this judgement from the responses to what were very simple questions by students both from government primary schools as well as preparatory schools.
This letter prompted a response published on November 7, from Mrs. Dorothea Whitehorne of St. Ann, who is a member of a group involved in scholarship examinations for high school students. Her letter published on our editorial page gave what we titled 'Samples of the Education Crisis'. Those samples were a random selection of answers to exam questions over the years which Mrs. Whitehorne said "may seem amusing were it not so serious and so sad." Among those answers: slavery was abolished in the years 1742, 1888 and 1969; and Jamaica achieved independence in 1982!
Both major political parties prior to the last general election in 2002 had education as one of the major planks of their manifestos. The subject continues to be a major policy objective of both Government and Opposition to this day.
But policy is a far cry from the results that the school system continues to show. From what we have cited it is obvious that the earliest stages of the education system must get priority treatment. Children should not be pushed through from preparatory to primary, secondary and then tertiary without the foundation they need for each stage.
We share the frustration of the high school teacher having to deal with students ill-prepared at the earlier stages for a new level of learning. The education authorities must put in place remedial measures to ensure that the commitment to a new emphasis on early childhood education gets real results. In the long run the whole system must feed into every level of national productivity.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
