Unintended result of abolishing SEA

THE EDITOR: Once again as the SEA exam approaches we hear more revolutionary talk emerging about equality in educational opportunities. There are calls to revoke the Concordat and to follow the lead of Barbados’ Mia Mottley by abolishing the secondary entrance exam.

Consider this scenario: a young but very intelligent and ambitious boy from a depressed community is headed to secondary school, but because SEA is abolished he must attend high school in his high-risk neighbourhood.

He is put into a very large school overrun with violence and gang activity. Teacher absenteeism is high as a result. In his class 40 per cent of the students are reading at a Standard One level. What would his school day look like? How realistic are his chances of remaining motivated in that environment? How would he fare if he were instead allowed to attend a school outside of his neighbourhood with a strong culture of achievement?

Meanwhile across town in a wealthier neighbourhood, a girl is also assigned to a nearby secondary school. Because it’s in a better part of town, almost all of the children come from wealthy homes. How would her school experience compare to the boy’s above?

Suppose that by a zoning quirk her school must admit several children who are reading at the Standard Three level. Wealthier parents are concerned about the slower pace of work in the classroom and begin to pay for extra lessons for their own children. The gap widens in the classroom. Parents begin to remove their children and send them to a nearby private school. The public school begins to languish.

Would this be the equity that we’ve been promised that comes from abolishing SEA?

Long after the applause dies down, Barbadians will find out that all citizens of their country will not have equal educational opportunities simply because Prime Minister Mottley says they will.

Many of our own schools in TT struggle under the weight of violence and illicit activities despite years of promises to “investigate” and “put measures in place” when incidents make the news. Parents have a right, then, to want to decide the destiny of their children for themselves rather than leaving it to fast-talking politicians promising that all is well and will continue to be well; and wealthy parents will still have the most options under any system.

The truth of the matter is, then, that a push for equality in education cannot and will not happen without a push for socioeconomic equality in the nation at large, and any quick fix is likely to adversely affect the poorest of us.

EVRON LEGALL

via e-mail