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The learning gap must be closed
Dear Editor,
I read your editorial on Leadership and Learning twice (April 30). The editorial expresses concern about the static ranking of our secondary schools, with particular schools maintaining top ranking at the Caribbean Secondary Schools Examination while others continue to under-perform.
The whole editorial is about the secondary schools. But entry into these schools is in itself based on performance in the primary schools. The top ranking students in the primary schools’ assessments have choices about which schools they can go to, and naturally they (or their parents) choose the top ranked secondary schools.
It is therefore no wonder that the top ranked secondary schools continue to occupy that position. (Indeed, it would be a disgrace if they did not, since that would indicate that they received well educated students, then undermined that basic primary education.) It is therefore not just a secondary school problem. The real problem starts in the primary schools.
We have had research that long ago established that children from poorer homes did less well in what used to be a Scholarship examination. In order to be admitted to the then leading secondary schools the student had to achieve a minimum mark which would “qualify” the student for a scholarship (even if, as was the case, no actual scholarship was available for every child who so qualified).
Children of teachers, civil servants, senior staff in private organizations, were disproportionately successful in those Scholarship exams. There was, and is, a good reason for this. Such children had parents who themselves had a higher level of education than poorer parents. They could read to their infant children. They could assist their children with school work. They could afford to buy books and educational toys for their children. And they could provide their children with more nutritious meals.
It is this imbalance which needs to be overcome. But overcoming the imbalance needs to be started as soon as the children enter school system, if not before. I, for example, had great grandparents, then grandparents, then parents, who all in turn helped their children. My generation had books to read (we got a book a month from Fogarty’s Bookstore).
The only reason I and my siblings could have had for NOT doing well at school would have been if we were mentally incapacitated. That is not the case with many of our children. If the parents have themselves had a limited education, how do they help their children?
I hope that the Ministry of Education is even now thinking of ways in which our oil revenues can be used to overcome this very serious disadvantage under which so many students have to struggle. Pay teachers better salaries, certainly. But if the schools continue as usual, increased pay to teachers will not change the situation.
We should be thinking about: (a) libraries in ALL schools, (b) adequate computers and computer skills in all schools, (c) active PTAs in all schools, (and note that I say “active”), (d) a school meals system, if that is judged to be necessary, (e) and a school bus system to help children who live some distance from their schools.
We also need to be thinking of ways to encourage parents to volunteer, where possible, in order to support a library period for every class in the school; and after school clubs, again with PTA support, for reading support, help with homework, crafts, music, sports etc, etc, etc.
I do not think, and I assume you do not think, that intelligence is limited to those children whose parents are able to provide adequately, in every respect, for them. We have many intelligent children who need help to achieve their true potential. I do not think that at present we are providing that.
Trying to remedy the situation at 11-plus when irreparable damage may have been done from 4 to 11 is akin to closing the stable door after the horse has gone.
Pat Robinson Commissiong
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