Nation facing math crisis, says Crawford

The nation has reached a crisis point with the recent underperformance in mathematics, by students nationwide, in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) external examinations, according to Senator Damion Crawford, opposition spokesperson on education and community development.

Crawford was addressing a press conference hosted by the People’s National Party’s (PNP) during which the state of education and next week’s reopening of schools were at the top of the agenda.

His comments came two days after the disclosure by Fayval Williams, minister of education and youth, that only 18 per cent of Jamaican students who sat the May-June CSEC exams received five or more subjects, inclusive of mathematics and English A (language). This is a three percentage point decrease when compared to last year’s results.

Further, there were decreases in the percentage of students who achieved passing grades in CSEC mathematics and English A exams, when compared with 2023.

Crawford explained that the nation’s educational plight was further demonstrated through local jobs, which previously, depended on human input but now utilise mechanical technologies.

“It is a national crisis, because ... if you look at the level of work muscle [that] has been replaced by the mind... those who used to go and mix cement on a construction site, more and more, are being replaced by a pre-mix truck. Those who used to go and debush a sidewalk are being replaced with a weed wacker, and those who used to offer their services to wash clothes have been replaced by a washing machine. So the opportunities for earning are reducing continuously and dramatically for those who are not able to matriculate to tertiary education, and the impact of that has also shown itself to be of great benefit to our society,” Crawford said.

“We are committed to our policy of one degree per household because we have seen that the households with degrees are less participant in violence and criminal activity. The households with degrees are suffering less from malnutrition and lack of food. The households with degrees are suffering less from the ability to seek and find healthcare, and the households with degrees are less likely [to have] illiterate children who are unable to maximise their potential,” he said.

COMPLETE OVERHAUL

In addition to Crawford’s comments, data from the 2021 Patterson Report, which examined Jamaica’s education system, revealed that 59 per cent of students who had completed primary school in 2019 were failing mathematics.

In an article published in The Gleaner yesterday, mathematics expert Dr Samuel McDaniel asserted that a complete overhaul of primary education was necessary to address the consistently mediocre performance of students in the subject area at the CSEC level.

McDaniel, a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at The University of the West Indies, Mona, argued that only three subjects should be taught in primary schools: reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In his comments yesterday, Crawford also touched on student performance in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, which are also of concern to him based on an assessment of the recent results.

“As it relates to PEP - the PEP examinations - the ministry continues to seek to find whatever loop it can jump through to suggest each year that there is an improvement, including comparing it with incorrect years and even this year, finding segments and groups that have never existed before in any form of an analysis,” Crawford said.

“It is right for us to accept where we are, and having accepted where we are, to then work on improving. I also feel the focus on having a rounded student has, somehow, caused us to shift away from the necessity of having a numerate and literate student, and there needs to be some analysis of the first six years of primary school, the three years of basic school, and the first 1,000 days of a child’s life as to how we are going to ensure that they’re numerate and literate and then contribute to their roundedness,” he said.

Crawford said he believes that Jamaica’s education system needs an overhaul.

“There needs to be a review of all processes because the system is creating more failures than passes. If you have a factory with a machine, and the machine is creating the odd outcome that is good versus the odd outcome that is bad, the machine would have been reviewed in totality and, possibly, discarded in some way.

“I was speaking to an individual recently that says the system is not sick. The system is working as it was intended, which was for most of us not to pass. Therefore, the system don’t need to be fixed. It needs to be replaced. We need a more effective and efficient system,” he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com