Boosting the pass rate in Maths and English

Jan 05, 2012 Editorial

Over the past five years, the government has been attempting a variety of things to improve education in Guyana. There was, for example, the remedial education programme that was conducted at a number of public schools.
This was a costly exercise but the end result would have been very meaningful for Guyana. There would have been people with a better level of literacy and numeracy, people who would have been able to access better jobs and later, even access higher education.
Guyana is full of people who did not perform well at school but who later developed to the point that they became successful students. They had recognized their shortcomings and opted to make the necessary adjustments. But these were people who recognized the importance of an education.
The remedial teaching programmes often involved serving and retired teachers. It failed because the very teachers claimed that they were not properly paid. For a few dollars the system collapsed. But it was deemed to failure because there was little by way of monitoring the end result.
The planners did say that they would see how the children would perform in the new term after a stint of remedial teaching. There was nothing to report, however, and the nation, despite spending a lot of money, cannot say what happened.
However, many people who do not get that sound education background, do not appreciate what is to happen in their future. They fail to understand the importance and the country suffers. Some of these illiterate people become drug mules, others become tools of the criminal elements.
The government toyed with distance education and trained scores of teachers to perform in this area. The view was that given the shortage of skilled teachers, the few in the system could place their subject material on an electronic device and with the help of the less skilled teachers, impart knowledge to a wider group of students.
This has not been as successful as one would hope because the administrators in the system did not pursue this area with the necessary alacrity.
We then toyed with importing educational programmes. We have since introduced what we call educational television. This is a case of rebroadcasting North American children programmes without considering that the children’s backgrounds are different.
This is a costly exercise, too. One must wonder whether there will be some evaluation and possible modification of this programme which is entirely foreign oriented. Things may not be so frustrating if the Education Ministry keeps the public informed of what it is doing. Of course, parents are crucial to these things. They must be partners in any education programme.
We are now having another go at improving the system. The new Minister, Priya Manickchand, has come up with findings for the improvements in passes at Mathematics and English. She found that there was a shortage of resources. The government has released some $90 million to provide these resources for the children writing the Caribbean Secondary Education Council examinations.
For years, although English Language is supposed to be the Mother language, passes at external examinations have been atrocious, less than fifty per cent of those who take the subject. Indeed, it is argued that the local dialects are the native language and that English is an imported language. But the fact that the teachers themselves cannot properly handle the language tells a story of serious decline.
Ms. Manickchand is asking some of these same teachers to help with the improvement of the students countrywide. Her intention is good but the methodology seems wrong. Unless there was a focus on the teachers over the August holidays, we cannot see them trying to make use of the additional resources. They themselves need to be trained.
It is the same with mathematics. This subject area has been the most affected because there was never a proper foundation at the lowest level of the school system.
We believe that there will be a constant review of the programme in the run up to the examinations. However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The results in September will indicate how good the programme is and whether the money allocated for this phase of educational improvement was worth the effort. If indeed we see improved performances in mathematics and English, this year then we would know that we are on the right track.

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Boosting the pass rate in Maths and English

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