Revised Automatic Promotion Policy will be effective next year

Jul 31, 2014 News

---

– Ministry considering promoting students on probation

By Sharmain Grainger

Although moves have been made by the Ministry of Education to temporarily halt its Automatic Promotion

Policy, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand has insisted that it will be in full effect next year.
The revised Policy should have seen all students who fail Mathematics and English becoming ineligible for promotion to a higher grade.
The Policy in its original form was implemented under the tenure of former Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, who had embraced the rationale that students should not be allowed to fail. This was in light of the fact that it was found that many failing students had diminished self esteem, and were either not striving to improve their performances, or dropping out of school altogether.
Moreover, Manickchand noted that Minister Baksh and his team at the time, decided to implement the Policy which was dubbed “No Child Left Behind.” “They thought that the best thing to do was to send them (students) over, because when you kept them back they were ashamed…morale were being lowered and confidence levels were being shattered; it was those kinds of issues that the sector had faced,” explained Manickchand.
Of interest though, was that soon after the implementation of the Policy, the Ministry was able to retain approximately 5,000 more students (over a two-year period).  This therefore, suggested that students were no longer opting to drop out as they were being granted passage through the grades even if they hadn’t passed the crucial subject areas of Mathematics and English.
Although retaining an increased number of students was seen as a plus for the sector, it was however, outweighed by a very daunting development which translated to some students becoming unruly to the extent that they refused to be taught.
This was seen as a downside to the Policy as, according to Minister Manickchand, it entailed a clause whereby students were promoted on the grounds that they attend remediation classes for the subject areas they had failed in the former Grade. Students were simply not adhering to the grounds of their promotion.
In fact, several teachers reported to the Ministry that students had become so malicious that they were refusing to do work they were assigned.  “You can do what you want; I got to go over anyway,” were the comments teachers were hearing from some students.
Before long, national concerns were being raised about the Policy.
By this time Manickchand had assumed the position of Education Minister and was soon driven to spearhead national consultations to help craft the way forward regarding the Policy.
“We went across the country to hear from people…and they were saying ‘we want our children to pass, we don’t want them to merely pass through’; they were saying throw it (the Policy) out  and go back to the old system where you had to pass before you were promoted,” informed Manickchand.
Moreover, the Ministry was soon putting measures in place to reverse the Policy outlining that students were required to pass Mathematics and English in order to be promoted.
It was also pointed out that even if students did not pass other subject areas they could have been guided into other areas in which they were proficient. “You told us reverse it and we reversed it,” asserted the Minister as she noted that it was long recognised that even if students were promoted and didn’t have Mathematics and English, they could be faced with difficulties later in life.  “We could pass you over and over and when you reach CXC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certification level) and you write 12 subjects and don’t get Maths and English, you might find that you still can’t get a good job,” pointed out the Minister.

A circular issued by Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam, had instructed that secondary level schools prohibit the promotion of students who did not pass Mathematics and English.
But according to Minister Manickchand, at the end of the school year several parents had started to protest the directive, insisting that they were not aware of the development.  “On July 11th when schools were closing parents all over the country were weeping, wringing their hands, gnashing their teeth and begging us to please give their children another chance,” informed the Education Minister.
Although the Minister remains adamant that the revised Policy is the way to go, she admitted that perhaps not enough was done within the Ministry to ensure that students and their parents were made aware early enough, that those who failed would not be promoted. “So everybody will go over for this year but next year that won’t happen…Nobody can say next year ‘we didn’t know’,” Manickchand asserted.
The Education Minister’s deliberations on the Policy were prompted on Tuesday as she addressed a consultation for education stakeholders at the Bartica Secondary School in Region Seven.
In fact, it was former Regional Chairman, Holbert Knight, who attended the consultation, vocalised his objection about the Ministry’s intent to temporarily halt the revised Policy thereby, allowing failed students to be promoted.
According to Knight he was not happy when the Policy was first implemented since he had recognised that it had dire implications for the subject areas of Mathematics and English which have long been of concern. He disclosed that the move by Minister Manickchand to revise the Policy was in fact yielding some positive results as he is aware that there were some students who were working harder towards passing the crucial subject areas.
Another resident, commenting on the matter, said that she is however, pleased that the Ministry had taken the decision to temporarily halt the revised Policy as it has given her son a chance to redeem himself. “He has promised me he will do better,” said the woman of her son as she went on to classify him as a “slow learner.”
However, it was the woman’s disclosure of her son’s promise to her that saw Minister Manickchand coming up with the idea that the Policy could be adjusted so as to allow students to be promoted on probation. “That might be a way that we can tweak the whole Automatic Promotion business; you go over on probation so it is not as though you will go over and you just pass…that is something we will be thinking about,” the Minister told the gathering.
The Minister was accompanied by several senior education officials including Deputy Chief Education Officer (Development), Ms. Doodmattie Singh; Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration), Ms. Donna Chapman; Chief Statistician (Planning Unit), Ms. Nicola London and Assistant Chief Education Officer (Primary), Mr. Marcel Hutson.
The consultation on Tuesday was one intended to solicit comments from residents on the way forward for the Ministry’s Hinterland Education Improving Programme (HEIP). The forum saw the attendance of a wide cross-section of Barticians and residents from neighbouring communities, many of whom were able to share recommendations on ways to improve the delivery of education.

---

---