Tweet
The headlines itself speaks to what is wrong with Jamaica and that is the five P’s.
Proper Planning Prevents ******** Poor Performance.
Parents worked hard with their children, many worked extra hours to find that extra cash so their kids could get extra lesson, so they could get good grades. Many were hoping that with decent grades, they would have been able to get their kids into a “decent” high school ( Traditional High School).
Now that there hard work has paid off at the kids have achieved a high level of mastery, they are now faced the the difficult decision of placing their high achiever in schools not know for academic excellence, but in many cases are know for disruptive and uncouth behaviour. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that all non traditional or upgraded high school are like this, but many are.
The salient point is, what did those in charge of the education ministry expect, did they not think that GSAT results would get better? Did they not believe that the work that was being put in by educators ( teachers and administrator), parents and students would eventually lead to better results?
If the answer is no, then shame on them, if the answer was yes, then shame on them once again. Many may be saying huh?
Well let me make it simple, if we truly believed that the results would have gotten better, it would therefore stand to reason that the higher grades would get even higher and the lower grades would also get higher. It therefore means that the upper bar would have been set higher ie those attending the creme de la creme schools would have to score close to 100% .
It would also stand to reason that with a fixed amount of space, eventually you would run out of places in the traditional high school to place these kids and therefore you would be left with no choice but to turn to the upgraded high schools.
Now we have a dilemma because over the years our so called incompetent leaders simply changed the name of most of these schools and did not do much to ensure that we were prepared for this day. This is where the 5 P’s come in play and where have failed our kids once again and I must say in a big way.
We cannot simply pluck students with 80′s and place them in an upgraded schools and expect them to prosper without certain basic things being firstly put in place. We cannot expect the these brights kids will improve the image and performance of the school simply by being their.
We are running the danger of having these kids believe that they have failed and so become failures, buy this experiment that is being conducted by the ministry of education.
Most of the top schools in Kingston are located uptown ( take out George’s and KC) so does that mean that these schools will now be reserved for those from those geographic areas aka “uptowner”? I certainly hope that is not the plan by our administrators, but we all know how ” d ting setup in Jamaica already”.
Word also on lips of some persons are as bad as GSAT may have appeared to be as soon as “poor people” pickney start get very good results dem want fi zone wi pickney dem and get rid a GSAT.
Cynicism is Jamaica is high and the reason for that is based on what persons have seen been done in the past by the social elites amongst us who are hell bent on maintaining the status quo.
I clearly understand what the ministry is trying to do and its something we have spoken about for years, the problem is, not enough work was done to ensure that these schools were ready for today.
I must note at least one school in Portland that has done extremely well since being updgraded and that is the Port Antonio Comprehensive High SChool formerly Port Antonio Secondary or Boundbrook School. The PTA,the school administrations and past student association have done a tremendous job and while it’s not yet at the level of Titchfield, they are doing very well, so all is not lost.
I am sure there are more success stories like these in our parishes and as such I would like readers to highlight these and let the kids going these schools know , they have a chance to get a good education.
I will have another piece on what needs to be done with those kids who are gaining 35 – 50%, because we simply cannot dump them by the wayside.
Proper Planning Prevents ******** Poor Performance.
Parents worked hard with their children, many worked extra hours to find that extra cash so their kids could get extra lesson, so they could get good grades. Many were hoping that with decent grades, they would have been able to get their kids into a “decent” high school ( Traditional High School).
Now that there hard work has paid off at the kids have achieved a high level of mastery, they are now faced the the difficult decision of placing their high achiever in schools not know for academic excellence, but in many cases are know for disruptive and uncouth behaviour. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that all non traditional or upgraded high school are like this, but many are.
The salient point is, what did those in charge of the education ministry expect, did they not think that GSAT results would get better? Did they not believe that the work that was being put in by educators ( teachers and administrator), parents and students would eventually lead to better results?
If the answer is no, then shame on them, if the answer was yes, then shame on them once again. Many may be saying huh?
Well let me make it simple, if we truly believed that the results would have gotten better, it would therefore stand to reason that the higher grades would get even higher and the lower grades would also get higher. It therefore means that the upper bar would have been set higher ie those attending the creme de la creme schools would have to score close to 100% .
It would also stand to reason that with a fixed amount of space, eventually you would run out of places in the traditional high school to place these kids and therefore you would be left with no choice but to turn to the upgraded high schools.
Now we have a dilemma because over the years our so called incompetent leaders simply changed the name of most of these schools and did not do much to ensure that we were prepared for this day. This is where the 5 P’s come in play and where have failed our kids once again and I must say in a big way.
We cannot simply pluck students with 80′s and place them in an upgraded schools and expect them to prosper without certain basic things being firstly put in place. We cannot expect the these brights kids will improve the image and performance of the school simply by being their.
We are running the danger of having these kids believe that they have failed and so become failures, buy this experiment that is being conducted by the ministry of education.
Most of the top schools in Kingston are located uptown ( take out George’s and KC) so does that mean that these schools will now be reserved for those from those geographic areas aka “uptowner”? I certainly hope that is not the plan by our administrators, but we all know how ” d ting setup in Jamaica already”.
Word also on lips of some persons are as bad as GSAT may have appeared to be as soon as “poor people” pickney start get very good results dem want fi zone wi pickney dem and get rid a GSAT.
Cynicism is Jamaica is high and the reason for that is based on what persons have seen been done in the past by the social elites amongst us who are hell bent on maintaining the status quo.
I clearly understand what the ministry is trying to do and its something we have spoken about for years, the problem is, not enough work was done to ensure that these schools were ready for today.
I must note at least one school in Portland that has done extremely well since being updgraded and that is the Port Antonio Comprehensive High SChool formerly Port Antonio Secondary or Boundbrook School. The PTA,the school administrations and past student association have done a tremendous job and while it’s not yet at the level of Titchfield, they are doing very well, so all is not lost.
I am sure there are more success stories like these in our parishes and as such I would like readers to highlight these and let the kids going these schools know , they have a chance to get a good education.
I will have another piece on what needs to be done with those kids who are gaining 35 – 50%, because we simply cannot dump them by the wayside.
Comment