Why students performed so badly in SEA

THE EDITOR: Although considerable efforts have been made to improve students’ performance in the SEA examination, the education system by its structural nature continues to foster inequality in academic performance. Therefore some students will perform well while others will have problems.

An individual’s education is closely linked to his/her life chance, parents’ income and social well-being. A student’s success in the examination continues to vary, making it difficult to connect the socialising effective domain in the student’s examination performance.

The choices that these students make regarding their motivation, engagement, and achievement in school and the satisfaction they obtain from their choice depend, in part, on the context in which they make such choices.

The society is inherently divided into three socioeconomic status groups: the upper-class, middle-class and working class. Students from the three groups are socialised into this system from very early in life. But the socialisation process is not the same in the three groups.

Since students are not socialised the same way, a variation in educational performance has its genesis in the inequality of the education system.

Research has indicated that children from working class households and communities develop educational skills more slowly, compared to children from upper and middle class households. If children enter kindergarten at a disadvantage, early gaps in understanding of literacy and mathematics tend to be sustained and widened over time.

This phenomenon is particularly true for children from working class families. What parents can do with their children at home has far greater significance than any other factor open to educational influence. Also, the early years are particularly important for developing children’s ability and enthusiasm.

There is no denying that, structurally, in TT school achievement is a very unequal process. This pattern seems clear when considering that working class children tend to underachieve and do this mostly because of their home circumstances and environment.

VAL SMITH via e-mail