A revamp in education is needed urgently

Jun 10, 2010 Editorial

Over the past decade and a half there has been a marked change in the education system. No longer do children go home after formal school, either to play or to burn the midnight oil.
The more affluent parent would send their wards to extra lessons as though what is imparted to the child during school hours is inadequate.
Outside of the formal school system are teachers who have either retired or resigned from the formal system and are desirous of earning at their own pace and without the level of supervision that operates in the formal system.
But more often than not, many of those offering extra lessons are teachers who work in schools by day and who then either use the school building or their homes to offer private lessons.
There is a lot wrong with this. For one, parents and guardians are convinced that the teachers do not exert themselves during the normal school hours and reserve their after work hours for work they would have done in school.
Many contend that the teachers merely go through the motion during school hours and so force the children to take private lessons if they are to learn anything.
If this is indeed the case, then the teachers are holding the Education Ministry, the parents and the children to ransom. We doubt, though, that the teachers are as callous so we are left to conclude that parents who can afford it are prepared to spend large sums of money to make their children competitive.
And as the August holidays approach one can expect to see children being made to forego their vacation in pursuit of further book learning. The general view is that all this is going to make the child a better person and the Education Ministry is in no position to dictate to the parents.
Yet all is not well with the education system. Increasingly, children are leaving school unable to read and write. It is as if they are being allowed to pass from class to class without learning anything.
How teachers allow this to happen is something that begs explanation.
We already know that there are teachers who are concerned with attending institutions of higher learning than with earning their pay.
Some of the teachers protest action by the Ministry to get them to work and from appearances, it seems as if these errant teachers have won because parents can still be heard to report that their children’s teachers are attending classes leaving the children unattended.
A few years ago there was talk about a school inspectorate but it would seem as if this is just another round of talking.
We did hear that there are not enough people to police the schools but surely, if they visit some schools and find irregularities they would cause the Education Ministry to act condignly and send a strong message to other schools where similar situations prevail.
But there is more to the issue because in the absence of the inspectorate, there are school boards that seem similarly inefficient because teachers continue to be absent from class. This is not doing the education system any good.
What do all these things tell us? That the administration in the education system is poor.
A recent report states that there is more violence in schools than the Minister of Education would care to admit. More male students are prone to violence—some 55 per cent according to the recent study.
The system needs radical overhaul and this cannot come any sooner.

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A revamp in education is needed urgently

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