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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>GSAT: a brand new way to keep us in our place</SPAN>
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Sunday, February 25, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Editor,
Even with its flaws and the "pressure" it puts on young minds, the Common Entrance had one thing going for it: It provided an opportunity for the children of the ghetto to receive a decent secondary level education. All our parents had to do was supplement the inadequacies and circumvent failures of the primary schools available to us.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now we have GSAT, which tries to place you "close to home", meaning a clear preference for sending children from the ghetto to the lower grade schools in the ghetto, thus making sure they never advance.<P class=StoryText align=justify>As if that wasn't bad enough, there is now a proposal to "Mix GSAT scholars", ie, send some of the best performing students to the poor performing, "upgraded" secondary schools.
This will hurt the children who are in the position I was 20 years ago: poor, hungry but educated well beyond the level of other grade 5 students in my primary school. My father made me do the academic exercises he endured in colonial times and bought school books even when this meant having the light disconnected in November.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I passed the common entrance and got into one of the top 10 high schools. They picked up where my Father left off (He "only" went to elementary school so he couldn't teach me beyond that level).
With this new proposal in place, a child in a similar position I was in at his age might be sent to a 5th rate school, which sends more students to the GP than to UWI.<P class=StoryText align=justify>His hard work and his family's sacrifice would be wasted on some experiment built on the false premise that bad schools are bad because of the dunce students.
A further point, this WILL NOT affect any upper class family. If Mrs Norbrook cannot get her child into Campion (or its equivalent), he will be sent abroad.<P class=StoryText align=justify>What's wrong with the upgraded schools?
. Poor facilities. Try teaching chemistry without any lab at all. Past students and PTAs provide equipment for top-ranked schools. Low-ranked schools don't have many wealthy past students or current parents who are wealthy, so resources must come from elsewhere. Lord knows I would prefer to see my taxes spent on libraries, beakers, and computers rather than the stuff it buys now.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Poor teachers. This will probably anger the JTA, but not every teacher has the same skill level or puts in the same amount of effort. Pay teachers based on performance, such that the good ones can spend like professionals. That will bring our best teachers back to the classroom. (How many teachers/college graduates are selling insurance or working for a newspaper?)
. Inadequate management. A carefully chosen principal with the power (and will) to fire a teacher who spends his days making sure students wear the correct socks rather than attend to the child's education should be in every school.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Finally, the problems in our education system start at the basic school level. Hence the solutions above should be implemented there first. Question is, Do our leaders want our children educated or do they just say that because we are so poorly educated we can't see the conflict between words and deeds?
From where I stand it looks like they want to keep us in our place: uneducated, hungry, devoid of self-esteem and ripe for manipulation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Kevin Forge
kevinforge@gmail.com
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Sunday, February 25, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Editor,
Even with its flaws and the "pressure" it puts on young minds, the Common Entrance had one thing going for it: It provided an opportunity for the children of the ghetto to receive a decent secondary level education. All our parents had to do was supplement the inadequacies and circumvent failures of the primary schools available to us.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now we have GSAT, which tries to place you "close to home", meaning a clear preference for sending children from the ghetto to the lower grade schools in the ghetto, thus making sure they never advance.<P class=StoryText align=justify>As if that wasn't bad enough, there is now a proposal to "Mix GSAT scholars", ie, send some of the best performing students to the poor performing, "upgraded" secondary schools.
This will hurt the children who are in the position I was 20 years ago: poor, hungry but educated well beyond the level of other grade 5 students in my primary school. My father made me do the academic exercises he endured in colonial times and bought school books even when this meant having the light disconnected in November.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I passed the common entrance and got into one of the top 10 high schools. They picked up where my Father left off (He "only" went to elementary school so he couldn't teach me beyond that level).
With this new proposal in place, a child in a similar position I was in at his age might be sent to a 5th rate school, which sends more students to the GP than to UWI.<P class=StoryText align=justify>His hard work and his family's sacrifice would be wasted on some experiment built on the false premise that bad schools are bad because of the dunce students.
A further point, this WILL NOT affect any upper class family. If Mrs Norbrook cannot get her child into Campion (or its equivalent), he will be sent abroad.<P class=StoryText align=justify>What's wrong with the upgraded schools?
. Poor facilities. Try teaching chemistry without any lab at all. Past students and PTAs provide equipment for top-ranked schools. Low-ranked schools don't have many wealthy past students or current parents who are wealthy, so resources must come from elsewhere. Lord knows I would prefer to see my taxes spent on libraries, beakers, and computers rather than the stuff it buys now.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Poor teachers. This will probably anger the JTA, but not every teacher has the same skill level or puts in the same amount of effort. Pay teachers based on performance, such that the good ones can spend like professionals. That will bring our best teachers back to the classroom. (How many teachers/college graduates are selling insurance or working for a newspaper?)
. Inadequate management. A carefully chosen principal with the power (and will) to fire a teacher who spends his days making sure students wear the correct socks rather than attend to the child's education should be in every school.<P class=StoryText align=justify>. Finally, the problems in our education system start at the basic school level. Hence the solutions above should be implemented there first. Question is, Do our leaders want our children educated or do they just say that because we are so poorly educated we can't see the conflict between words and deeds?
From where I stand it looks like they want to keep us in our place: uneducated, hungry, devoid of self-esteem and ripe for manipulation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Kevin Forge
kevinforge@gmail.com