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EXTRA LESSONS ARE NOT THE ANSWERS

Oct 04, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

It will take more than extra lessons to help those who failed Mathematics and English at the CXC examinations. The decision of the government to help those who failed is well-intentioned but the situation as regards these two subjects is worrying and requires a much greater response than what has been decided.
This is not to deride what the government plans to do. Offering extra lessons shows that the government is concerned and wants to help, but it seems as if more than extra lessons are needed if we are to address the miserable pass rate, said to be under 35%, in both of these subjects.
Guyana is fooling itself that it has a stock of highly educated persons, which it can export to other parts of the world. If only about one third of your student population that writes the CXC examinations are having passes in the two core subjects then what we have is an education system that is in crisis and that is not turning out students that can fulfill help in national development.
Mathematics and English are compulsory subjects that are required for entry into higher education and many employers insist on their employees also having these passes.
Without English and Mathematics you cannot enter nursing school, the teacher training institute or the university. Even the technical institutes require passes in these subjects.
So we have a big problem and the problem is not going to be solved with extra lessons. Extra lessons hardly ever make poor students good.
It normally makes good students better. Extra lessons, which is a thriving industry in Guyana does not really help the weaker students because it is not a substitute for good schooling.
Giving away free computers is also not going to help. Computers may also be argued cannot be a substitute for encouraging students to read books and to develop good literacy through reading rather than blogging and surfing the net. Computers will help with other subjects which are based around the imparting of facts.
But Mathematics and English are subjects that do not involve learning facts. They involve methods of problem-solving and systems to be employed in various operations that allow the student to develop a competence in reading, comprehension, writing, computing and solving problems operations by applying general operational principles.
What this means is that if the poor pass rate in English and Mathematics is going to be reversed, then there must be an investment in ensuring that from an early age, students are equipped with the basics to succeed at these subjects. This involves ensuring that no student is left behind in Mathematics and English.
One understands why the Ministry of Education is insisting that all students must be promoted.
Given the poor pass rates in these two core subjects, it means that if passing these subjects were necessary to be promoted, we would have chaos in the education system, since the vast majority of students may be forced to repeat at the various grade levels in the system. So one understands the logistical nightmare that will occur if there is no automatic promotion.
However, after students write the CXC, they have to leave school; they have to be promoted to the wider society, and thousands are leaving as failures measured by the poor pass rates of Mathematics and English.
The solution has to be to insist on better teachers within the school system. No one without a teaching certificate should be teaching in nursery and primary school; no one without a first degree should be teaching in the secondary schools; no one without a Master’s Degree should be teaching the upper levels in schools. But this cannot happen because the teaching profession is itself affected by the failures in Mathematics and English each year.
With better pay we can get the best teachers in our schools. And while it will be costly, it will be more costly to the country not to address this problem.

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