Like many other issues, the Common Entrance Exam has been discussed to death for years but Minister Ronald Jones says he “will not be rushed into changing the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) or any form of assessment for children going into secondary schools”.
Why is that not surprising? Has anyone remotely connected to the public sector ever rushed to make a decision, except perhaps to dismiss Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin?
The whole education system, from nursery to tertiary, has to be carefully rethought to meet current needs. In Jamaica the Common Entrance Exam was replaced by the Grade Six Assessment Test in 1999 but apparently this has been dogged by problems.
But that shouldn’t happen here. There have been so many valuable contributions by parent-teacher associations and educators, one of the most recent by Mr Anthony Griffith, former senior lecturer in education, UWI, Cave Hill, that the Government should not lack for sound advice if or when it “looks at it”.
What we need to remember though, is that after 50 years of “free” education, our claim of a literacy level in excess of 98 per cent is now a myth. We must discover why and try to repair the situation. We must decide what we’re trying to achieve with education and prepare students accordingly.
Not all children are academically minded. This should be recognized early and students not allowed to slip through the cracks, passing through primary and secondary school without gaining academic or technical skills to support them as adults. They must be guided into technical training at schools like the Industry High School. Resources must be used to strengthen these schools instead of wasting them by passing children who can’t cope through the secondary system. We must emphasize the importance of technical skills to national development.
I am not an educator, but I can certainly attest to the immense pressure children and parents are put under almost from the time children can talk. Their life is consumed with the narrow math/English Common Entrance Exam. I don’t agree with this. Education should be well-rounded, teaching life skills in an enjoyable way, to prepare students to be useful citizens who can contribute to Barbados’ development.
Many children don’t do their best under exam conditions, especially in a strange environment, so continuous assessment may be a better gauge of their potential than one big exam. To remove any biases, these assessments should be set and corrected by the Ministry of Education.
We continually hear of the need for entrepreneurship. But we must create the necessary environment, not after youngsters leave school, but from the earliest possible age. This was confirmed recently by Dr Philmore Alleyne, Head of Management Studies at UWI. Children must be encouraged to undertake team projects and learn about business so that it becomes their culture. There has been some attempt at this, but it must become the norm.
At the Caribbean Innovation Challenge 2013, it was reiterated that the Caribbean education system needs to be revamped to encourage children from a very early age to be innovative (or “constructively deviant”) and to “think outside the box”, rather than to aim only at achieving success in maths and English for the Common Entrance Exam. Any positive change we hope to achieve must start in the pre- and primary schools, so we must ensure that our primary school teachers are well trained so as to properly mould children during their formative years. This is not always the case. Some teachers are being corrected on their spelling by their young students.
As far as tertiary education is concerned, if the university is to be supported by taxpayers’ dollars, it must cater to the country’s needs. Places allocated for each study area must reflect the need for that area, or resources will be wasted. Furthermore, the university must respond to national problems with tangible applied research.
Jamaica’s vision for 2030 that “our country will develop an education and training system that produces well-rounded and qualified individuals who will be empowered to learn for life, able to function as creative and productive individuals in all spheres of our society and be competitive in a global context” makes sense to me. But I have a sneaky feeling that in 2030 we may still be “looking at” our education system.
• Dr Frances Chandler is a former Independent senator.