A pioneer in the system of newer secondary schools was honoured yesterday for his contribution, with the school he piloted through the formative years of that process now bearing his name.
And in accepting the honour of Garrison Secondary School being renamed Graydon Sealy Secondary School, the veteran educator threw out a challenge to education planners to rethink the 11-Plus examination, while raising questions about its impact on students and teachers.
Sealy, the first principal of Garrison Secondary when it opened in 1975, yesterday asked whether children should be required to sit the Common Entrance Exam “because they are 11-plus or because they are ready”.
“If performance on that exam is an accurate gauge of academic ability, why are pupils with low exam scores following the same curriculum as those with high scores? Why aren’t teachers of the ‘underachieving’ students being trained in remedial instruction?”
