Ruel Reid says education system favours early starters

Alessandro Boyd, Gleaner Writer

Senator Ruel Reid has expressed concern over the current set-up of the education system, which he says favours early starters.

Reid was speaking yesterday at the National Child Month Committee's Youth Academic Achievement Awards 2014. The ceremony was held at the Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston.

"We are in post discussion of Minister (Ronald) Thwaite's announcement on some changes to GSAT (Grade Six Achievement Test), which is quite interesting because how the education system has been structured, to be frank, it really favours the early starters; the people like Usain Bolt who can bolt and get out of the starting blocks very quickly," he said.

"Terminally at age 16, 17, a number of persons, particularly our boys, may not have been properly developed cognitively, so I have a difficulty fundamentally with the design of the education system," Reid continued.

FALSE IMPRESSION

"GSAT was redesigned because, the fact is, we had limited college places, hence they broadened the curriculum for science and social studies with the hope that fewer and fewer students would get higher grades. The less students who have higher grades makes it easier to place them in the few traditional high schools that existed," Reid said.

"So we have a system that gives people a false impression sometimes that the rest of them are failures. It is not that they are failures but it is how the system is designed as some persons need more time to bloom; some are late starters. It is not where you are coming from but where you are going," he added.