LETTER OF THE DAY - Class sizes key to student performance
Published:Monday | January 24, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
My compliments to Ms Peggy Bleyberg, director of the Hillel Academy, whose letter was published in The Gleaner on Saturday, January 22, for her succinct assessment of at least one of the reasons for the superior performance of her school's student body when compared to some Ministry of Education-managed schools.
Though comparable, public and private schools do often find great differences in funding. There is no doubt that class size is key to teacher performance - regardless of all other factors, particularly given equality in teacher capability - and, as such, is a far more relevant factor to be taken into account, though often dismissed or simply ignored in assessing the differences in educational outcomes among schools.
What this really says is that students need to come to school and attend classes with only one thing in mind - learning - and what it takes to accomplish that singular task. It also says that teachers are inherently not the best disciplinarians of our children and that their roles should, at best, approach that of being good counsellors and guides, as well as being inspirational models, and not be forced to be managers and disciplinarians.
Those roles should remain with the parent.
No excuses
Differences in funding, as I am certain that Ms Bleyberg well recognises and can appreciate, may eventually force the closure of a private school, as was the case, for example, with the five-decade-long-running Priory in the Corporate Area. But student outcomes - that is, performance on standard tests, for example - are not related as much to per-pupil expenditures as they are to a far more realistic appreciation, particularly in Jamaica's public schools, of teacher capability and purpose.
Change that reality, Ministry of Education, and you will make the greatest contribution possible to the future of Jamaican children and to Jamaica, in general. No excuses can be tolerated. Go with smaller classes for, say, a decade and watch what happens.
I am, etc.,
ED MCCOY