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Putting the cart before the horse on the curriculum at Annandale Secondary School
Dear Editor,
Ideally, one would like for students to have a rounded educational experience for example, exposure to areas such as music, foreign languages and art apart from the traditional subjects in our public schools.
Putting the cart before the horse on the curriculum at Annandale Secondary School
However, the resources (teachers) may not be available to achieve what is desired at the unit level and one simply has to be practical and work with what is at hand in individual schools. It is well known that certain areas do not attract a large enrolment therefore, for these ‘special subjects’ demand for the specialist teachers is always greater than supply. However, while exposure to these subjects is desired one is still able to receive a solid educational experience without them and there are options that the child and parents can explore. For instance, if one wants to learn French one can simply join an online course, learn from YouTube or enrol in a physical class.
Furthermore, moulding a child by providing exposure to different subjects is not solely dependent on the school system. While religious places do play their part in this area by teaching children how to play musical instruments associated with that religion and how to enhance their singing abilities by being a part of a choir or singing ‘bhajans’, parents should provide experiences and exposure to activities and courses that would broaden the minds of their children. And many young people do take on the responsibility of enrolling themselves in activities and courses that they find relaxing, interesting or what would teach them valuable skills and knowledge to further achieve their personal and professional goals.
It’s simply not possible to cover ‘everything’ in the school especially if the required resources are not available therefore, I find it mindboggling that a situation that requires only ‘commonsense’ to resolve quickly and easily is a sore point.
On the timetable at Annandale Secondary School, periods were allocated for special subjects, which do not have teachers. The teachers haven’t reported for duty as yet and they’re not a part of the staff. Also, this situation is a replay of what happened during a previous academic year. The ‘special teachers’ are either contract or part time workers who are just paid for the hours they teach. One would expect that these teachers would only be timetabled when they report to the HM of school for duty but the illogical has occurred. In fact, regular subjects such as HFLE and Reading were either removed or periods reduced to accommodate these ‘teachers’ and although we’re into the 6th week of the term they’re yet to appear!
This situation negatively affects the students and teachers of the school. The students now have scheduled ‘free periods’ where they are unsupervised and left to their own devices. While they may enjoy this who should be held responsible if anything goes wrong with them during these periods for instance, if a fight breaks out or they engage in other unacceptable behaviour? Also, when unsupervised children tend to become noisy and loiter on the corridors thereby affecting the children and teachers in nearby classes. Also, should level supervisors and heads of departments be held responsible for the consequences of decisions they never played a part in making?
Although I voiced my concerns with the relevant teachers and gave my recommendation on the matter, I am yet to see any positive changes and this undesirable situation remains; I am affected. I was told by a teacher on the Senior Leadership Team that the administrative staff is waiting on a directive from the VIP(s) at the Ministry of Education to remove the subjects (without teachers) from the time table. Whether this is true or not, I think basic common sense without the need for instructions from ‘those above’ can be employed to resolve this matter. Let other subjects be given the ‘free periods’ until the special teachers arrive.
(Putting the cart before the horse on the curriculum at Annandale Secondary School)
Yours faithfully,
Narissa Deokarran
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