LETTER OF THE DAY - Education in crisis

THE EDITOR, Sir: It was reported earlier this year that the poor performance in mathematics and the oral and written aspects of the English language by many students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Technology (UTech) has led to those institutions introducing proficiency tests to evaluate the competence of new entrants and to provide foundation coursework to help them improve their English and mathematics.

It is a fair assumption that the same challenge obtains at other such institutions across the country.

This is a huge indictment on our education system, which remains in serious crisis. It does not appear that urgent steps are being taken by the education ministry to correct the serious deficiencies. The talk continues, but the attendant action remains elusive or cosmetic at best.

A possible solution advanced by some, even 'well-learned' at some of our tertiary institutions, is the notion of our using Patois, a dialect, as our principal language of instruction in our school system and teaching English as a second language. That is a lot of poppycock, as it would not fundamentally address the problem we face.

There needs to be an urgent overhaul of especially the primary school curriculum. As is, it is more content-driven than skills-based, which serves to do us a serious disservice. The Grade Six Achievement Test ought to be discontinued in the shortest order and replaced with a Grade Six Assessment Test, along the lines of the Grade Four Literacy Test. We must cease forthwith our preoccupation with imparting knowledge at the expense of facilitating intelligence.

Too many of our young children possess a wealth of knowledge, which is essentially the process of recalling the information learned, but they are lacking the critical foundation skills, such as being able to use that information acquired to reason intelligently and to think and write critically, creatively, and logically. Their appreciation for the rudiments of grammar are oftentimes seriously lacking, too.

Having been sufficiently stimulated at the early-childhood level, primary-school students must be exposed largely to the rudiments of English, civics and mathematics for at least the first three years. If we want to throw in the teaching of, say, Spanish as a second language and the like at that stage that could be entertained.

age-specific levels

By grade four, other subject areas at age-specific levels should be introduced, as the students prepare to transition to high school. The nonsense of cramming the primary-level students with high-school level material must be discontinued.

Why is it necessary for an eight-year-old Jamaican child to know the name and measurement of the tallest mountain in the world, the date of the Morant Bay Rebellion, or the various parts of the eye and their functions? That knowledge can be had a little later quite easily, in first form in high school or beyond, especially when such an eight-year-old cannot read and write well.

Obviously, our teachers must be trained to develop the necessary competencies to properly direct their young charges, understanding that mastering the fundamental skills of reading, speaking, and writing will largely inform how well and how far we advance as a people. It is time we stop creating walking encyclopaedias and start creating more intelligent students.

KEVIN K.O. SANGSTER

sangstek@msn.com