With schoolchildren experiencing “burnout” from their workload, losing interest in study and facing alienation, it’s time to shake up the system governing the annual transfer of students from primary to secondary schools.
This suggestion came from retired teacher John Goddard Wednesday night as he delivered the John Cumberbatch Memorial Lecture at Almond Bay Caterers in Hastings, Christ Church.
Goddard said the system had its share of problems, requiring some teachers to spend most of their working lives “struggling to teach students whose poor reading and writing skills militate against effective learning, and who have been turned off from school anyway”.
“Another problem stemming from our preoccupation with the Common Entrance Examination is that by the first year of secondary school, many of our children are burnt out from their onerous workload in classes 2 to 4 of primary school,” Goddard added.
“The competitive nature of the exam means that primary schools spend valuable time with concepts which should best be left to the secondary level. Our children would be better served trying to master the basic skills necessary for their graduation to secondary school.” (TY)
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