Is ministry turning back clock on education?

OLABISI KUBONI

OF THE seven topics that the Ministry of Education covered in its recent media conference, two deserved greater attention than they got in the follow-up Q & A. These were the remedial education programmes and the introduction of a revised School Leaving Certificate Examination for lower secondary school students. Both have implications for a significant proportion of the school-age population and cannot be allowed to fall under the radar.

This year, the Vacation Revision Programme (VRP) catered for two sets of students, namely recent SEA candidates scoring less than 50 per cent in the exam, and underachieving students still in primary school. Focusing on the post-SEA cohort, two issues stand out.

First, it is not clear whether the group targeted for remediation was those scoring under 50 per cent or under 30 per cent. The ministry seems to be going back and forth between these two scores to identify underachievement. However, even a 50 per cent cut-off score is not high enough, so the number of underachievers may be greater than reported.

Secondly, the report states that 937 students were enrolled for the post-SEA revision programme. This should raise alarm bells since, based on a quick review of this year’s results, the number scoring below the 50 per cent mark was somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000. So, the ministry was not even remotely close to its target number for remediation.

The other two programmes reported on both targeted and current primary students. The question that arises is: why mount a VRP for this group when, during the academic year just ended, there was the after-school education programme (ASEP) in primary schools? Overall, it appears that, in spite of all the numbers thrown around, the entire remediation programme continues to fail.

Next comes the rebranding of the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination (PSLCE) with a new name, Lower Secondary Proficiency Examination (LSPE). The PSLCE dates back to the colonial era when those who did not sit, or did not pass, the College Exhibition Examination, spent an extra two years and sat this exam to complete their primary schooling. It would give them entry to the trades or qualify them for jobs such as police constable, bus driver, bus conductor, nursing assistant.

By the 1990s, when not all candidates of the Common Entrance Examination could be given a secondary school place, those who remained in the primary school would sit the PSLCE and subsequently get placed at the secondary level if successful. In 2000, however, when there were enough secondary places to accommodate all 11-plus students, the PSLCE was discontinued, but remained in place for adults.

Fast-forward to today. PSLCE has become LSPE to be offered to Form 2 students, especially those scoring less than 50 per cent in SEA. It is claimed that it will qualify them for jobs such as chauffeur, cleaner, groundsman, messenger and watchman. While the option to continue and sit CSEC is available, it is obvious that most of these students will be leaving secondary school at age 13 to 15 years.

Dr Eric Williams must be turning in his grave to see how a PNM government has turned its back on the goal of making quality secondary education accessible to all, regardless of socio-economic status. It may also alarm him that, instead of increasing efforts to expand the secondary curriculum with subjects capable of producing the human capital required for building a 21st century national economy, the current government has chosen to give new life to the School Leaving Certificate Examination.

If today’s PNM administration is focused on enhancing the quality of education for the most disadvantaged in the society, it will commit to the following actions:

* Discontinue all remedial programmes and scrap the idea of moving the School Leaving Certificate into the secondary sector.

* Add an extra year’s schooling at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels for all students deemed to be at risk of falling through the cracks.

* Develop appropriate curriculum and teaching-learning strategies to give these students the best chance of attaining the standard required for the respective level.

* Make the necessary infrastructural, organisational, staffing and student-enrolment adjustments to create dedicated teaching-learning centres for the education of these underachievers.

* Acknowledge that teaching for SEA dominates most of primary education and take steps to undo this harmful practice.

* Convert selected government secondary schools into TVET (technical and vocational education and training) institutions and review SEA to ensure that it functions as a proper competency-based placement test.

With a general election approaching, voters must ensure that the Government, whether current or incoming, gives high priority to revamping the education sector.

Olabisi Kuboni is a retired senior lecturer, UWI Open Campus