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The TSC and the Ministry should see with Sir Thomas

Nov 27, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I do support in principle, the stand taken by the headmaster, staff and students of the Wismar-Christianburg Multilateral School on the issue of, “no student being allowed to repeat classes.”
The Ministry of Education has documented a set of reasons as to why a student should not be left behind. They cited for example, the stigma and stress that the child has to endure; to be seen and treated like a failure. They went on to point out that the child would be exposed to the psychological pressures and tensions have to endure at the hands of his or her peers.
In my view, to put over a student who has not performed is an attempt to undermine and frustrate the efforts of the teacher and the other students, who are serious about their education.
Further Mr. Editor, we will be exposing students to a higher level of information absorption to which they will not be able to cope. That in essence would realise two behavioural outcomes; (1) Will cause the student to become frustrated and after a while, will drop out of classes, and (2) Will cause the student to be easily distracted and as a result, be a distraction to other students, who are trying to grapple with the concepts that are being taught.
The psychological pressures and stigma to which the Ministry and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) are trumpeting, should be in themselves be motivating factors to encourage ‘non-performers’ to get their acts together, when they see their younger siblings catching up with them.
In addition, the fast track Initiative Programme, is a programme the Ministry has designed and implemented to impact on those who regrettably have to repeat a class.
The TSC and the Ministry should not jump on Sir. Thomas, simply because he prefers to be honest and truthful; rather should make an assessment to ascertain why our passes at the CXC Level in the Science Subjects are so few; why our grades in Math and English Language are just below average, when compared to the performances of our sister CARICOM States; and why most of our trained and qualified teachers are opting to leave the system and to do menial jobs overseas.
L. Barry, Teacher (Ret’d)

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