Comparisons between public and private schools based on Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE) results are unfair, says president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Rudy Lovell.
With this year’s results released on Monday, he argued that while both were staffed by highly-qualified teachers and follow the same curriculum set by the Ministry of Education Transformation, several factors placed public schools at a disadvantage.
Of the top 12 overall performers revealed by the ministry, only four came from public schools.
Lovell questioned whether differences in resources and parental support might explain why private schools tended to outperform public schools.
“The private schools, in our opinion, may be better resourced than the public schools,” he said, noting that public school teachers often spend significant sums of their own money purchasing teaching materials despite Government’s investment in education.
Teachers, he added, were “usually the ones who provide a lot of funding for education in Barbados” by purchasing resources for their classrooms.
Th BUT leader also pointed to stronger parental involvement in private institutions, suggesting that while parents were involved in public schools, that participation “could be greatly enhanced”.
Asked whether the performance gap reflected shortcomings in the public school curriculum, Lovell maintained that the comparison was not a fair one.
“Both schools are following the curriculum as outlined by the Ministry of Education, but there are some variables,” he noted.
As an example, he highlighted repeated closures at public schools because of environmental issues.
“When was the last time you heard about a private school being closed for environmental issues? Public schools throughout the whole school year have been closing continuously with regards to environmental issues.”
He called on the ministry to identify what it believed was contributing to the stronger performances by private schools.
“There are several other variables that may contribute to the divide between the public schools and the private schools in terms of the examination mark. I would like the ministry to tell us what, in their opinion, may be causing the private schools to outperform the public schools.”
Addressing concerns about the persistent performance gap between boys and girls, Lovell said more targeted support was needed for the males.
“I think that more can be done,” he said, suggesting that public schools should have specialised teachers in subjects such as mathematics, English and reading to better support students’ learning needs. (DDS)