Celebrating the academic success of the nation's top students is a time-honoured tradition that extends back to colonial days, when the winner of the sole Island Scholarship became an instant celebrity. It is hard not to be moved by the palpable excitement of parents and students.
Many a Facebook post today was by a proud parent, simply posting the name of a school that her child had gotten into. Nowadays, the number of students being feted has expanded significantly to the top 10 and even the top-scoring 200 students in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination.
It is understandable that the children who have performed at such a high standard would be acknowledged, and even lauded. But, in recent years, the question has been asked about how well this reflects on the overall quality of education in Trinidad and Tobago. Only one per cent of students pass for the "prestige" schools. It means that for every student celebrating passing for their first-choice school, there are 99 who may be disappointed and even, in the worst cases, traumatised at having failed to do so.
Moreover, those students who have passed for their second choice schools may develop an unwarrantedly negative view of their own academic capacities, since they may well have scored over 90 per cent in the SEA � an excellent performance by any measure � but the top schools only admit students who have scored 95 per cent and more, as well as 20 per cent of students who have "family history."
Some parents have resolved this by putting a second-tier school as their child's first choice. That way, even if the student scores between 80 to 94 per cent, they can still boast that they passed for their first choice. This helps to maintain a child's self-image in the face of an unnecessarily stressful rite-of-passage which can determine their future.
Moreover, despite the seemingly wide gap between the handful of prestige secondary schools and the rest, the majority of second-tier schools see at least half of their students obtaining five or more CXC passes, and more than 70 per cent getting high enough passes in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) to go on to university.
The evidence from nations such as Japan and Finland is that closing the gap between second-tier and first-tier schools helps the overall quality of education. Parents can be assured that their child will get a good quality education no matter what school they go to, or where in the country it is located. In any case the conventional wisdom is that high-IQ children will do well, irrespective of which school they pass for.
In T&T, students compensate later on. There is a significant amount of upward movement between the fifth and sixth forms, as some achieve their admission goals, albeit belatedly.
SEA exam results also throw up wonderful stories of students from poor homes, backgrounds and limited financial circumstances punching through to top schools through their own brilliance and hard work. Others, from similarly challenging circumstances, will fare worse, and see their life prospects severely impaired. Many in this latter category are considered "unteachable."
However, the best systems cater for every child's skills and deficiencies and generally succeed in educating nearly every one. This is the ideal for which education professionals in T&T must strive.Meanwhile, let us celebrate a special time in the lives of the nation's students.