In case you haven't realised, once your child has entered primary school, you are a Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) mom or dad! So get invested in change. The primary school system is failing our children, even those who excel (early burnout is on the increase). The headlines celebrate the top few, the Ministry rewards the first 200 and parents praise prestige schools entrants. What of the rest? What of the 30 per cent achieving less than 50 per cent? Yes they are placed in high schools (we have a 100 per cent placement policy), but they are not coping because high school offers the same measure of success. That's for another conversation.
In 2015, 18,000-plus children wrote SEA. Approximately 2000 are placed in prestige schools. Based on current trends; 20 per cent (3,600) will drop out before CSEC, 62 per cent (8,370) will fail to get a five-subject CSEC certificate. Of the approximate 3500 to go on to CAPE about 2100 (11 per cent) will pass three subjects, thus qualifying for entry into university. What happens to the remaining 16,900? While not everyone needs or wants a university education to succeed (and there are those), as a society, rudderless, many of our young people are turning to crime.
Our boys are the most vulnerable. Following the 2014 results, Minister Tim Gopeesingh lamented the disparity between girls and boys making the top 200 list as "significant." The top three pupils were all girls and while more boys than girls wrote the exam, the Minister noted that "every year more boys have to repeat the SEA examinations." Only 26 per cent of the first 200 top students at SEA are boys. Mind you, that girls are excelling does not mean the system is suitable for them.
I intimately understand this. I have a son, his entry into the formal education system was a baptismal in the difference between boys and girls and their respective responses to our schools' "one size fit all" "academic excellence is boss" teaching methods.
Pre-school was great! He enjoyed the learning by seeing and doing. Once we entered primary school, all hell broke loose. In first year, he would simply do no school work for the entire day. He could turn anything into a toy. Even his fingers became jet planes if all else were confiscated! His teacher was helpless to the task of exciting him to read and write. Not her fault, she only knew one way. He was punished, separated from the class, to no avail. I got called in to discuss the situation. The recommendation; he should repeat first year. I resisted.
Second year was a little better. His teacher took the time to understand how he learnt. She incentivised rather than punished and we had a fair year.
In standard one, things went far south. By now I was thinking that something was wrong with my son. The principal shared my concern and provided names of children psychologists. But, typical mother, resistance to this notion, time went by and we started standard two. The daily shut down resumed. The psychological testing reared its head again when I was called in with a group of "delinquent parents" (that's how the system makes you feel when your child is less than star academic performer)! I must confess, true to parental form I pushed, punished, pleaded, bribed, compared, screamed, even cried.
Before I could make the dreaded phone call, I bought a Lego two years advanced for his age. I gave it to him at 10 pm and went to bed. At 1 am I was awakened, completed spacecraft in his hand! Not possible if he had attention deficit syndrome! He simply had classroom attention deficit!
He discovered paper airplanes, his modifications were amazing! He developed an interest in dinosaurs and while he stuttered through the school readings was excited to read about dinosaurs. He could not remember simple things taught in school but knew everything about Dina sours! He had to conduct the experiment to grasp the difference between a solvent and solute. He has now graduated from building a 1200 piece Lego by direction to building on his own designs. While his reading is poor, his comprehension skills are excellent! He will spend hours with a football, is a star team player, excels at tennis but cannot sit still to get the math homework completed.
So does my son have learning disorders or is it that he learns differently? I am no psychologist, but convinced that it's the latter. My son is street smart, a critical thinker and problem solver. The education system, instead of nurturing this, is snuffing creativity out of him, and ironically we keep calling young adults (who have gone through his school experience) to build a creative and innovative society. How? When the system required only rote and regurgitation!
According to one writer, in the 21st century classroom, children need to discover, to experiment, to do research and to use their ability to think and reason. This is the 21st century, what are we doing to give our children what they really need?
Indera Sagewan-Alli is an economist currently attached to the University of the West Indies' Caribbean Centre for Competitiveness.