Teachers flunk
Published:Tuesday | December 14, 2010 | 12:00 AM
JTA to review National Education Inspectorate report outlining deficiencies in primary schools
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is planning to thoroughly examine the criteria used to evaluate teachers under a pilot assessment that has determined that their ability to manipulate subjects taught in primary schools remains weak.
"We want to look at the criteria that were used, and we want to assess them to ensure that the measurement used was valid," JTA President Nadine Molloy told The Gleaner yesterday.
Molloy was responding to the findings of the chief inspector's report on the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) programme, tabled in Parliament last week, which reported a significant level of deficiency in teachers' overall subject mastery at the primary level.
Thirty primary and secondary schools were inspected from April to June in the pilot assessment programme carried out by the NEI.
According to the parliamentary document, the level of mediocrity in teachers' subject knowledge at the primary level was a concern.
Of the 23 primary schools that were inspected, close to 50 per cent received a failing grade.
Eleven schools were rated as unsatisfactory in the teachers' subject knowledge at the primary level, while 11 were considered satisfactory, and one was rated good. None gained exceptional ratings from the inspectorate team.
Teaching methodology was among the lowest-rated indicators in the teaching and learning category, with 78 per cent of the 23 primary schools inspected reportedly operating below standard expectations.
"Particular weaknesses were highlighted in schools where the predominant teaching method was teacher-led, with students presenting as passive learners. Questioning techniques were underdeveloped and questions were mostly used to check students' recall of lesson content rather than challenging them to be critical thinkers," the document noted.
The teaching methods of 17 schools at the primary level were rated unsatisfactory. One was rated poor, four satisfactory, and one judged to be good.
Also at the primary level, 17 of the 23 schools inspected were adjudged unsatisfactory in their use of assessment to guide student learning.
"In such schools, it was noted that even where data are used to determine the students' progress across the streams in each grade, this has little impact on informing teaching throughout the school and directing remedial programmes across all subject areas," the report stated.
In the meantime, there is a significant gap in the results attained by the secondary high schools inspected as against the traditional high schools.
The inspectors found that teachers in traditional high schools displayed a higher-level mastery of their subject areas than teachers in secondary high schools.
Three of the four secondary high schools were rated as unsatisfactory while the two traditional high schools inspected were both rated exceptional, and the remaining school of excellence was rated as good.
"We will be looking at the report in detail, and where we can assist our teachers in improving their skills, their mastery of the content area, and so on, we will be working towards those objectives," Molloy added.
Wentworth Gabbidon, president of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals, dismissed the findings of the report, claiming that teachers at secondary high schools continue to perform at a good standard, considering the students they get and the results they produce.
"Many of our high schools, which are termed upgraded high schools, are doing very well in terms of what they start out with, and so we have to look at the value added, and I think the inspectorate, in an attempt to evaluate the schools, should first of all look at the beginning grades of the students entering the schools and look at the five years and see how well they do at the end," he added.
He said the practical subjects, which are the strong points of the secondary schools, are most times not evaluated, but they would add value to the system.
Earlier this year, Audrey Sewell, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, told The Gleaner that weak performances were unearthed by the assessment programme.
Sewell said the ministry would seek to equip those schools to reasonable levels or, in her words, assist them "to get up to scratch" before swinging the axe.
Though unwilling to say much about the findings of the report when quizzed by reporters at a Gleaner Editors' Forum earlier this year, NEI Chief Inspector Elaine Foster-Allen said the inspection revealed deep-seated teaching and learning deficiencies which were endemic to schools.
The NEI programme was implemented to promote a culture of excellence in education, a system of accountability, as well as the goal of continuing institutional improvement.
The ministry is in the process of holding principals accountable for the failure of students in order to achieve its 2015 goal of full literacy for all primary-school graduates.
Allen said all public schools would be inspected over the next three and a half years.
The agency, which was established in line with one of the recommendations from the 2004 Task Force on Education, is funded by the World Bank.