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published: Thursday | January 24, 2008
Education Minister Andrew Holness' plan that children will not be allowed to sit the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) until they are certified as literate and numerate is not without merit, but worthy of significant discussion among all stakeholders in the process of education.
What we understand Mr. Holness is attempting to achieve by this suggestion is to prevent the problem of illiteracy among students in the primary school system being glossed over and transferred to secondary schools. In other words, he wants to end what has essentially become an education conveyor belt between primary and secondary schools.
Of course, Mr. Holness has a real problem with an education system that has, for a long time, failed to deliver to expectations or to meet the needs of a modern, globally competitive economy. After all, perhaps a third of the children leave high school without a pass in a single subject in the Caribbean Examination Council's secondary school certificate exams. Fewer than 40 per cent pass math and a similar percentage fail at English.
The problem, however, does not begin at secondary school. For instance, more than a quarter of the students who are promoted to secondary school need significant remedial work for basic mastery of literacy and numeracy skills. And at the grade four level, two years before high school and GSAT, 40 per cent of the students fail the test.
Therein lies the immediate crux of the problem with which Minister Holness is attempting to grapple, having been placed squarely on the table by Member of Parliament Ronnie Thwaites, with his motion to change the regulations to prevent the automatic promotion of children. There will be, correctly, the argument that the answer rests with a build out of the early childhood infrastructure, which is now under way. That, however, takes time. We have to work with what is available.
This issue, therefore, is how to achieve the best results at the primary level so as to give children the best chance in secondary schools. That, of course, is what the Grade 4 Literacy Test was supposed to do: identify those children with problems so that they could be marked for remedial attention over the next two years of their primary education.
Part of the problem here, though, is its scale; 40 per cent is a huge deficit to make up. This speaks to systemic inefficiencies in the system, which are being identified at grade four. That has to be addressed.
There, too, is the issue of what happens after the problem is identified at grade four. One past approach was not to advance those students with a substantial deficit. However, lack of classroom space and insufficiency of teachers proved a problem, forcing its abandonment.
Moving the children to grade five may solve the space problem, but the issue is whether there will be the specialist remedial interventions to bring the children to a level to master GSAT. That is a matter for Mr. Holness to address.
Moreover, it seems to us that the grade four test has to be truly national and universal in its application. In other words, all children should be tested in the same fashion and scored in the same way, as well as a deliberate attempt to shift national focus to what happens at grade four, in the same way as we pay attention to GSAT.
Education Minister Andrew Holness' plan that children will not be allowed to sit the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) until they are certified as literate and numerate is not without merit, but worthy of significant discussion among all stakeholders in the process of education.
What we understand Mr. Holness is attempting to achieve by this suggestion is to prevent the problem of illiteracy among students in the primary school system being glossed over and transferred to secondary schools. In other words, he wants to end what has essentially become an education conveyor belt between primary and secondary schools.
Of course, Mr. Holness has a real problem with an education system that has, for a long time, failed to deliver to expectations or to meet the needs of a modern, globally competitive economy. After all, perhaps a third of the children leave high school without a pass in a single subject in the Caribbean Examination Council's secondary school certificate exams. Fewer than 40 per cent pass math and a similar percentage fail at English.
The problem, however, does not begin at secondary school. For instance, more than a quarter of the students who are promoted to secondary school need significant remedial work for basic mastery of literacy and numeracy skills. And at the grade four level, two years before high school and GSAT, 40 per cent of the students fail the test.
Therein lies the immediate crux of the problem with which Minister Holness is attempting to grapple, having been placed squarely on the table by Member of Parliament Ronnie Thwaites, with his motion to change the regulations to prevent the automatic promotion of children. There will be, correctly, the argument that the answer rests with a build out of the early childhood infrastructure, which is now under way. That, however, takes time. We have to work with what is available.
This issue, therefore, is how to achieve the best results at the primary level so as to give children the best chance in secondary schools. That, of course, is what the Grade 4 Literacy Test was supposed to do: identify those children with problems so that they could be marked for remedial attention over the next two years of their primary education.
Part of the problem here, though, is its scale; 40 per cent is a huge deficit to make up. This speaks to systemic inefficiencies in the system, which are being identified at grade four. That has to be addressed.
There, too, is the issue of what happens after the problem is identified at grade four. One past approach was not to advance those students with a substantial deficit. However, lack of classroom space and insufficiency of teachers proved a problem, forcing its abandonment.
Moving the children to grade five may solve the space problem, but the issue is whether there will be the specialist remedial interventions to bring the children to a level to master GSAT. That is a matter for Mr. Holness to address.
Moreover, it seems to us that the grade four test has to be truly national and universal in its application. In other words, all children should be tested in the same fashion and scored in the same way, as well as a deliberate attempt to shift national focus to what happens at grade four, in the same way as we pay attention to GSAT.