The Editor, Sir:

The educational system in Jamaica will never be improved until we address the root cause or inefficiencies of its problems.

Never in the history of Jamaica were there so many seminars and educational workshops for teachers and, sometimes, parents convened than what we are having today. Yet, the reports and performance of our students at the national level leave so much to be desired. It's useless for anyone to scoff at the CXC passes when the problem stems from the basic to at least the grade three level.

It should be mandatory that if the child cannot master the grade three level, that child should never move on to grade four to await the literacy and numeracy test.

Start the remedial work where it matters most - grades two and three. The grade four literacy test should not be the benchmark to provide remedial attention.

At grade four, students should be mastering all those concepts in the various subjects possible, to prepare them for the GSAT, thus, mastering the secondary level,, which, in turn, equals better passes at the CXC level.

Andrew Holness, with all the good intentions, I strongly believe that we still need to build a few more schools for our children with special needs. Too many of them are in the regular school programme and this will do them no good seeing that they cannot function effectively in these settings.

The few such schools that are around cannot accommodate all of them, hence they are placed where they are, more often than not, frustrated. We are in a global economy and cannot allow our talented Jamaicans to be left out of this global arena because they cannot fill out a simple form with their demographical data. We need to unearth these talents through proper education.

Parents need to spend more time with their little ones or at least get somebody to assist them with the reading. If the reading problem is addressed, the puzzle is almost solved. Far too many of our children cannot identify basic words. We must do it together.

I am, etc.,

ROSE GRAHAM

rosegrathom@yahoo.com

May Pen