TheEditor, Sir:

Not wanting to stir the proverbial hornets' nest or undermine the integrity of the CXC organisation, I cannot help, however, as a Jamaican but notice, if nobody else has, that the CXC headquarters resides in Barbados and that the students of that island seem to score higher in the CAPE exams than anybody else, every year.

Is there any way of proving that their students are indeed genetically brighter than ours, or even worse, is it that their teachers are better than ours?

I can believe the latter because, except for a few good ones out here, most of our teachers leave a lot to be desired. They are self-serving adults and should not really be trusted with the responsibility of teaching children.

Teachers are being paid a salary, great or small, like anyone else, yet they behave as if they are doing a favour in the performance of their duties. Many successful passes are not as a result of the lessons taught in the classroom, but the extra classes held after school for exorbitant amounts, and that is framed in empirical evidence.

Guidance counselling

Another matter, separate and apart from CXCs and teachers, is the matter of guidance counselling. A lot of persons counselling in schools should not even be allowed on the school compound, much less to counsel people's children.

A case came across my desk the other day, where a student at a popular girls' school, with which I am very familiar, confided a very private matter to the guidance counsellor, only to pass the staff room later and catch said guidance counsellor repeating the story, with all the teachers bowed over and alertly listening to every detail.

This was confirmed by a disgusted teacher who was present but did not want to appear out of place, so she listened and vowed that she would advise her children never to discuss anything private with guidance counsellors.

These teachers were just waiting to discuss it at the next hairdressing visit, or use it against the student in an argument. The student left the school before holidays officially began.

What a sorry state our children are battling with.

I am, etc.,

J.M. FLETCHER

Irish Town