The CSEC intervention – A most welcome initiative

Mar 14, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Throughout the world, governments are attempting to address demands and pressures for improving the lives of their citizens. Internal and external demands on governments and development organizations are causing them to seek new ways to improve public management. The current CSEC Mathematics and English intervention is all about re-engineering the Education system to enhance overall productivity. Having examined the base-line indicators on current performance, the Minister of Education knew that she had to take the risk and take it fast, as time was running out for the present batch of Grade 11 students.
The present batch of Grade 11 learners had two years at the Nursery level, six years at the Primary level and five years at the secondary level to cultivate the skills alluded to. The current CSEC Mathematics and English pilot project is an intervention. KN published a letter on March 7, 2012 by Mohamed S. Hussain with commentary of the Ministry of Education (MOE) methods and himself alluding to McDonald’s article when he is fully aware that the goal of Education in Guyana remains generally, to equip young people with the requisite knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to take their rightful places in society.
At the commencement of the intervention, the Minister of Education met with Regional Education officials, head-teachers, subject teachers, parents and students of the pilot schools to discuss the implementation and outcome of the project. The benchmark targets specified increase in the percentage pass rate over their 2011 performance in the pilot schools.
Smart objectives have been set based on each school’s peculiar areas of strengths and weaknesses. Apart from the materials component, the methodology component is ongoing at regional levels where subject teachers participate in training sessions. The free remedial tutoring for students in both subject areas is one of the main aspects of the intervention, while the monitoring mechanism includes weekly visits and feedback to MOE by regional education officials and external observers to ensure accountability,   Performance indicators have recently been obtained via data collection to track whether the intervention is making progress. If these are not programme components, then what is?
Had Mr Hussain been present at that initial meeting he would have understood better the intent of the initiative and would have had no cause to misrepresent its intent. Only schools with trends where the majority of students hovered on the borderline of Grade 4 in Mathematics and English were selected for the intervention, so that they could move towards obtaining a minimum of Grade 3. In the schools selected, there was found a common reality that students were gaining Grades 1 and 2 in other subjects, but were unable to matriculate because of poor grades in Mathematics and English.
What the intervention is seeking to do is to give students in these schools help, so that a student who may have been able to get a Grade 4 can hopefully be able to get a Grade 3 or 2 and have an opportunity to dream bigger and better dreams and to realize them for themselves and the country.
For Mr. Hussain, this may seem a waste of time or resource, but for the child who benefits from the programme and matriculates to higher education or otherwise has better alternatives, this initiative would have given him or her, a chance to a better life. The outcome of the intervention is to minimize the current large percentage of school leavers facing closed opportunity doors for want of a minimum of Grade 3 Mathematics and English at CSEC.
Mr. Hussain’s question regarding the books procured may be answered, in that they were additions to those class sets that are already in the system and were obtained so that each student could have a copy. These, along with the other materials, are to be passed on to the succeeding classes. So, the money that was expended is not for this intervention only. A research is not required to know the number of books in the schools.
A simple audit of the inventory yields the data, and this was required by the Ministry before the books were issued.
Anyone is aware that time-tabling by the teachers regulates the number of books students should take daily to school. Only the pilot schools are being given materials. If teaching materials and professional development are injected into the failing system, one does not have to be a rocket scientist to deduce why, if increased performance comes. However, I am confident that the Minister and team will release the scientific aspects of the intervention at the right time.
On a serious note, with the prevailing negative social forces invading the school system, Guyana is indeed fortunate to have a luminary of the legal profession at its helm. Teachers who feel they are underpaid and work under poor conditions have the opportunity for appeal at each level within the MOE. Teachers in recent years have enjoyed substantial increases in their paycheck; duty free car concessions and low interest housing loans, in spite of the disproportionate productivity in school performance.
Three years ago the Ministry co-funded a Masters in Education programme with a U.S. University where dozens of educators conducted research. It may be good to include the services of the scholarly ones who completed these studies for future roles in developing the education system.
Unlike what the playfully sarcastic, mischievous headline of Mr. Hussain’s missive suggests, the Ministry of Education and the Education System of Guyana have quite educated professionals working assiduously for the best interest of the nation’s children; certainly not the planet’s craziest.
Dolly S. Hussain
Veteran Educator

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