Edward Seaga

Little things can make a big difference in crucial areas. There is no more crucial area than education. This is where small things can matter most.

Increased attention is being given to make students more aware of the need for proper education and teachers of the need for quality teaching. These will have incremental effect and over time will help to raise the academic performance of students. But parents are not receiving the same level of attention to make them aware of their part in the totality of the education system as it affects their children. I well recognise that Parent-Teachers' Associations are the vehicle for this effort and these are not generally effective. But some means has to be found to bring parents into the loop, if it is even for one session of orientation.

Areas of weakness

One of the areas of weakness is that many parents do not understand the difference between A, B and C grades. Using numerals helps. What many parents know is the child is enrolled in a school, attends as much as possible depending on lunch money and bus fare, has a few of the prescribed books and eventually "graduate". If these parents are queried about the performance of their child, the response will be: "Teacher say im (male/female) doing all right," or "im not doing so well," according to teacher. They are not able to figure it out for themselves. Then comes graduation day and for those whose performance was not a waste of time, graduation clothes must be provided. Those who were among the many, who were not allowed to sit the CSEC school graduation exam because their poor grades would pull down the performance level of the school, won't need any graduation outfits. They just "finish school".

In this climate of ignorance, bliss prevails. The child has gone to school and completed the time period allotted.

A student preparing her thesis for a Ph.D. degree, asked me to critique her dissertation outline. It was heavily based on interviewing parent(s)/caregivers about the performance of their children/students. When I pointed out that she would receive a lot of misleading answers because a good many parents from rural and inner-city households were ignorant about the system, she looked at me, from her middle-class background, in disbelief. Because so much depended on the questionnaire approach for the success of her project, she agreed to test my apprehension on a pilot basis in the field. Some weeks later she called to say I was right. I advised her to write her thesis around the level of ignorance, rather than awareness, in the system.

Surely, it would be possible to have one day set aside for mandatory attendance of parents to be oriented. Parents of students enrolling in uptown schools receive a full orientation of all the things a parent should know to determine performance and all that is required of them to help that performance.

One of the roles required of parents/caregivers is to see that homework is done. Teachers and others who know the value of homework ensure that this vital area of the learning process is not neglected with their children. The results can be seen in their better performances.

The problem is that most low-income homes do not have appropriate conveniences for study. The houses are small and overrun by many noisy children or overpowered by boom boxes, radio or television. Sometimes, the light available is from lamps. At other times, in rural areas, children do not reach home until late because of long distances which may include time-consuming walks and have to leave early for school the next morning.

The tired child then has to help out around the house before settling into the disturbing surroundings where efforts to study fail from lack of time or disruptions.

If the homework problems could be solved it would have a startling effect on academic performance. I have in the past on several occasions pointed out how this could be done. Require teachers to give one hour more each day after regular school ends and require all students to attend a one-hour homework class which teachers would supervise, not teach, to ensure that an hour of concentrated effort is applied to doing home work. This would take care of all the difficulties in transportation delays or long distances between home and school and the disturbances at home. Better yet if each school purchased some extra textbooks which would be available for reference only at homework classes, it would take care of those students who were not able to purchase all the books listed. Teachers would not be wasting time as they could use the time to do preparations for classes the next day or to mark exams or homework. Despite the fact that the homework period would be a shared benefit, teachers should receive a stipend. This stipend should be negotiated as part of the settlement of salary reviews and could be a welcome addition. Currently, a salary review is taking place but, despite my many previous suggestions, there is no homework stipend involved, as far as I know.

'Dunce bat'

The system will therefore continue to be the 'dunce bat' environment that it is with more than 70 per cent of all students leaving school having failed to pass a single subject.

I am coming close to the conclusion that ignorance of the people is an asset which some governments relish. After all, an ignorant population can be fooled into believing that the system is performing just as parents/caregivers are fooled that their children are achieving. In this way, it takes so little to get results. Parents are happy that their children "finish school" and the electorate is happy if problems are blotted out by election entertainment on a mass scale to make them "feel good".

Efforts to prepare political manifestos are a waste of time. They are, at best, only a part of a historical record, read by a few hundred discerning citizens. The last JLP Manifesto prepared by myself and a small team was more a blue print for development than a manifesto. Even recently I received requests for copies. Government has not ignored it. The Inner-City Housing Programme of the NHT to replace shacks was a direct replica of the "Shack Attack" project in that manifesto using the very same proposed means of financing. This is to the good of the nation and the benefit of the people, but if political parties expect to get any benefit from manifestos, "Fahget it!". The people don't know and don't care.

To the people, "ignorance is bliss;" governments do not want them to be wise. If they did, so many improvements could be accomplished for so little that it would not be "folly to be wise."

Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the University of the West Indies. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm