The reason girls continue to outperform boys in examinations at all levels is because their brain cells mature at a faster rate. According to Jamaican-born guidance counsellor, Camille Swapp, it was critical to examine and understand the biological underpinnings associated with learning, since research showed that a neuron found in the cortex region of the brain was responsible for learning.
Last month, two girls copped first place in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination. Swapp, who is a trained guidance counsellor and UWI graduate, whose thesis focused on brain development, recently shared her opinions and recommendations on the education system with the Sunday Guardian. Swapp, a mother of two, said there was a need for change in the syllabus.
Speaking passionately about the issue at her home in Santa Margarita, St Augustine, she said, "Either they make the syllabus more in line with the age group now, because they are taking five-year-olds in Infant One, or the better thing to do might be to change the entrance age into schools to an older child entering Infant One." She said it was critical to do so, because when she did her thesis on developmentally appropriate practices to promote joyful learning, it showed that five-year-olds took two terms to settle down.
"I looked at a research group from a private primary and a public primary school, and it was noted in the public schools that the five-year-olds took two terms to settle down because they were so young, and the environment frightened them with bells going off and not having caregivers to nurture them." She said five-year-olds were better served in a smaller environment, such as a pre-school or nursery.
Licks for learning
Girls mature faster than boys because of the chemical myelin. "We assume in the Caribbean, because of our historic model of education, that only a teacher makes you learn. "Only your experiences when you look and see things, fancy parenting or licks for learning–that makes you learn. "But biologically, they could look at the brain and know how learning occurs."
According to her research, learning occurred biologically with a neuron found in the cortex region of the brain. She said it was attached to "most of our very critical things," such as muscle and visual movements. "Boys don't read and write early, because myelin–the chemical responsible for attention span–usually comes in later for most boys, but it comes in earlier for girls.
"If you take children into school too early, before those cells are mature and ready for formal schooling–which is sitting for long periods for reading and writing–then you will misdiagnose. "You will not assess them properly, because nature has not done its work yet. "And that is why at the end, you will see girls seemingly looking more academic because of our entrance age, and we don't really talk much about maturation of brain cells associated with readiness."
Lack of info
Lack of information in the teachers' training colleges and to parents about learning biologically was an issue that was never discussed. "This information is critical for us to assess our historic practices with how we do exams, and at what age do we start assessing," Swapp said. She listed reading as an example. "We complain that there was a problem about reading. Even Barbados complains." Most children were taught phonics from age five to seven, but Swapp questioned: "Do you know that the rules for phonics were better understood after the age of seven?"
She said children could be exposed to reading and phonics, but should not be assessed critically until after seven, because most five-year-olds were busy playing, or crying underneath the desk. She said Scandinavia, where she once lived, showed lower rates of reading problems, because they respected readiness. "We more talk about stimulating the cells to make them ready, and we're going to give them licks so they can read," Swapp said.
"Most children will not read properly to the level of assessment we do in the Caribbean until seven or eight years old, especially boys. We should not assess them, worse to be giving them a national test before a certain age. "This is bad, because what happens is that you are fuelling panic in your society for parents to give them extra lessons, and when you damage the central nervous system, this neuron for learning, you get bad behaviour. You get learning disabilities too."
System not liberating
Swapp said the T&T education system was "more debilitating than liberating."
There were too many sad faces, too many adults saying they never did well in school; too many who said they went to a bad school, and too many adults hitting their children because of the school system.
She said many adults were breaking relationships with the children because of the school system. They lacked the necessary information about the learning process. "I want to be the voice of the children. We must know that learning is fun, and it is not fun if the teacher wants to leave the job and the parent feels so burdened to teach something, or the learner feels so burdened to learn. "We must be happy to go to school.
