Johnson wants review of PEP placement mechanism
Published:Friday | October 20, 2023 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
AMID EFFORTS by the education ministry to abolish the streaming of students into secondary schools, Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Leighton Johnson has issued a call for a full review of how placement happens before changing the system.
Speaking to The Gleaner on Wednesday, Johnson said that streaming students based on their academic abilities has resulted in non-traditional high schools being predominantly populated with students with average or poor performances in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) tests.
“Our education system is characterised by two types of secondary schools: the traditional ‘Ivy League’ schools and the upgraded high schools. Of course, the Patterson report describes it as two extremely different school systems in our country, one that is world-class and serves mainly the ‘haves’ and the other pertaining to the vast majority and serving the ‘have-nots’,” Johnson asserted.
“From time immemorial, we know that only students who attain a particular grade will be awarded places in the traditional high schools, and the rest will be placed in the non-traditional or upgraded high schools,” the JTA president said, noting that the initial mechanism goes on to promote the streaming of students at the highest level.
Supporters of the practice have argued that it prevents those performing well from being held back in the education system, while critics say streaming sidelines students who have not met their schools’ strict academic requirements.
Last April, evaluation specialist Professor Neville Ying recommended that the classification of Jamaica’s schools as traditional or non-traditional be done away with as such labelling would result in perceptions of superiority or inferiority.
Dr Kasan Troupe, the permanent secretary in the education ministry, told a sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee on October 11 that the ministry has been urging schools not to stream students due to the psychological effect it has been having.
Speaking further on Wednesday about the categorisation of students based on their performance, Johnson argued that students’ school placements are based on which of the PEP exam’s three competency pathways they attain. Pathway One is for students who are performing satisfactorily. Pathway Two is for children who have some form of delayed learning, and Pathway Three is for students with special needs.
“There are schools existing in our country that have only Pathway One students enrolled there, and there are other schools that have only Pathways Two and Three students. In some instances, our newly upgraded high schools have only or predominantly Pathway Three students enrolled,” said Johnson.
“There is an immediate need for the [education ministry] to review the funding mechanisms in relation to the upgraded high schools. These institutions require greater levels of funding to get students who are placed there functionally literate and numerate,” Johnson added.
“We want to assure the nation that the teachers in these upgraded high schools have been, for a very long time, ‘flipping’ the classroom and the curriculum to ensure that students who are entrusted in their care, who are primarily Pathways Two and Three, leave these schools functionally literate and certified in either City and Guilds, the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training, or in some instances, with CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) subjects.”