Backer salutes top students but worry about those “slipping through the cracks”

Aug 19, 2013 News

---

 

By Abena Rockcliffe

While A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Debra Backer is impressed by the performance of this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) standout students, the seasoned politician noted that she is extensively worried about those that are slipping through the proverbial cracks.
During an interview with Kaieteur News on Friday, Backer indicated that she salutes the students that did exceptionally well but noted that “just like with Amaila, we want a complete disclosure; we need to look at every aspect of the CSEC results. I mean when you hear students getting 20 subjects, it is understood that these children have to be off the top, more than brilliant; therefore, we (the APNU) commend them. However, our greater concern is the average passes for the course subjects.”

Backer highlighted the fact that Mathematics continues to be dismal and said that that needs to change.
According to official Ministry of Education statistics, passes for Mathematics this year were recorded at 28.92 percent representing a decrease from last year’s 29.69 percent pass rate.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, as she announced this year’s results, disclosed that in Mathematics, there was a slight decline in the Grades One to Three passes; from 30.35 percent in 2011 and 29.69 percent in 2012 to 28.92 percent in 2013.
On Friday, Backer admitted that failure in Mathematic at the CSEC level is a Caribbean problem.  The attorney-at-law added that it is a problem which the Guyana government insists that it’s doing enough to address.  Backer said however opined that one of the things that the government needs to do is increase teachers’ salaries, “They must understand that they have to pay teachers more.”
Going back to the particulars of the results, Backer said “There is a saying that the weight of the lobster is in its tail. The lobster is very thin up top but the tail is big.” The attorney-at-law used that adage to press home the fact that the overall countrywide performance weren’t excellent as there are areas where “we really fell down.”
She added that APNU’s concern is how many of the children really did make it and how many passed five subjects securing grades one to three.
Backer repeatedly lamented that lots of students are “falling through the cracks”. She said that it is the same thing happening at the grade six levels (previously referred to as Common Entrance). “You see these very high marks but more than half of those students get less than 20 or 30 percent of the total marks and that’s where our concern lies.”
The APNU Member of Parliament said that for some years now, Guyana has been topping the Caribbean at the CSEC and CAPE levels “and everybody is shouting ‘yay.”
She said however, that the state of affairs across most of the Caribbean, especially Jamaica and Barbados, is that a student cannot sit more than 10 subjects unless given special permission to do so.
Backer rationalized that “the person in Jamaica who is in fifth form is still running track and field, is still in the debating competition, and is still going to music lessons. But in Guyana, the children leave home when it is bright and they come back when it’s dark.”
The lawyer asserted that other countries found that a more rounded curriculum is needed.
The attorney at law asserted that education is not just about attaining “20 or 18 (CSEC) subjects, there must be interaction, socialization, street values; it about being able to rationalize and being able to reason in order to avoid resorting to violence. We have to review what education is. English literature is not about memorizing the Merchant of Venice, which was written in the 16 century; to me the critical aspect of literature is to be able to read, to rationalize and to basically comprehend. We have to go back to the drawing board. Is education just robotically doing Mathematics or English or is education the absolute capacity to reason, interface and be rounded citizens. In America when you go to the higher University they want to know if you are in the Red Cross, the boy scouts or girl guides.”
Backer told Kaieteur News that she is by no means putting all the blame on the government given that she has identified that these issues are too big for the government. She said however, that for things to get better there must first be recognition by the government that the aforementioned is a “fact.”
Backer noted that “It’s not that they (the government) are inadequate, in this aspect, but simply because that’s the reality. Government alone can’t solve the education problem like it can’t solve problems of violence. But the key to it is that there has to be that recognition.”
The APNU executive member said that her party is willing to come together with the government to “figure out a way that will help us all.”
The attorney-at-law pointed out another factor that she said must have contributed to academic shortfall saying that parents depend too much on teachers for the academic future of their children.
According to Backer, her children learnt to read before they started school. “I taught them the basic cat, bat, rat. But instead, parents put them to watch the television and even in the cartoons you can see the glorification of violence.”
Even though some amount of the students did well this year, passes for English Language—a course subject—were recorded at 45.69 percent marking an increase compared to last year’s 37.02 percent.
Minister Manickchand had told Kaieteur News that she has to sit with her team to strategize other tactics to go about tackling the problem in Mathematics especially. She said that for the amount of resources the ministry is pumping into the subject area, the results are indeed disappointing.

---

---