The abolition of a flawed policy

Jul 06, 2013 Editorial

Two years ago the Education Ministry introduced a system that many said would actually remove learning from within the confines of the school. This system was one of no child being left behind. It meant that regardless of whether the child ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ that child would have to be promoted.
The system was more pronounced in the secondary schools where already teachers claim that they are finding it difficult to discipline children. Some teachers reported that the children, particularly those who appeared not to be academically inclined, said that they need not study, that they would be promoted anyhow.
Of course, there were some schools who did not agree with the so-called no child left behind policy. One head teacher in Linden decided that he was not going to adopt such a policy in his school and attracted a sanction from the Education Ministry.
For the greater part the schools were not excited about the apparent relaxation in trying to educate children. Whether they passed or not the children had to be promoted. On Thursday, the Head of St Stephen’s Primary School reported that a mere thirty per cent of the children who wrote the Grade Two examinations were successful.
And using that school as a reflection of what passes in the education system, it transpired that three of the more than thirty children who write the National Grade Six Examination qualified for senior secondary schools. Of course, there are other factors responsible for such a performance but that is for another forum.
In other schools where discipline was under threat, many teachers simply gave up and this affected entire classrooms. Coupled with poor supervision, the school was relegated to a place to keep children when they did not want to stay at home.
The decision to adopt the no child left behind policy, according to the education officials had some positives. The incidence of school dropouts was lessened. The officials attributed this to the reduced embarrassment to the poor performing children. They no longer had to sit in a classroom with younger children.
There was what the administrators called another plus. The children had a chance to excel at the subjects they did best without having to worry about those subjects that actually caused their grades to slide.
Yet one must answer some questions. National bodies do not readily institute measures without consulting with the intended beneficiaries. But this is what the Education Ministry did. In the end, two years after it took the decision, it found that the decision was unpopular. When even the children would not agree with the policy of automatic promotion it says something about measures implemented by the Education Ministry without consultation.
Those children who must work hard for their successes would not have been happy to see their less industrious colleagues simply moving along with them in the classroom.
The Education Ministry might not have found itself in this position had it maintained some of the good things from the previous administration. A long time ago, educationists found that all children do not learn at the same pace and that all are not academically inclined. That being the case there was streaming. Science-minded children were directed to those areas; technical students were sent to the multilateral schools and later, to the technical institutes.
The system worked until a change in Government brought about a change in the education system and the scrapping of some of the institutions to the detriment of the very system.
Fortunately, some sanity is returning to the education system. The administrators now recognize that the children could be streamed to pursue those subjects in which they are strongest. But there is a marked silence if the child is one who has a learning disability. Guyana has no special schools.
The one good thing to come out of this is the insistence that every academic must be proficient in Mathematics and English. The other thing is that the Ministry might have created extreme laziness among teachers who might have grown accustomed to not really pressing the students because of the no child left behind policy.

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The abolition of a flawed policy

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