Essential Issues in Jamaica's High School Education Shitstem

[Don1]

1. What are the optimal methodologies required to convert the ~75% of the HS age cohort afflicted by abysmal primary education, surrounded by negative social mores in their communities & severe financial challenges in their households ... to be solid academic performers

2. How best can education policymakers, administrators, teachers and students be re-oriented away from obsolete 20th Century systems, practices & goals .... towards a 21st Century STEM focus synchronized with an appropriate national industrial policy

3. What are the most time sensitive & cost effective strategies to implement reforms required by 1 & 2 above


Wake mi up when Jamaicans start to debate education in a fashion even approaching that baseline framework...

Debate on education policy or outcomes conducted without addressing those core essentials amounts to uninformed, superficial, puerile & specious yappin' ... par for the course for so called "informed Jamaicans"

[Islandman]

Schools more than CXC results
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lette...sults_14885965

Dear Editor,
As a high school teacher, I believe that it is wrong to measure schools by CXC results alone. There are many factors that affect a student's preformance at school and in exams. The schools in the top 20 may have facilities that are not available in other schools. These top schools may also have parental support that is lacking elsewhere.

Support includes parents who pay school fees, attend PTA meetings, interact with the subject teachers, and supervise their children. It goes also to when weakness are detected, parents in top schools may respond by sending their children to evening and Saturday classes. These children are often properly fed and/or have stable family lives.
Unfortunately, there are schools where students come from struggling single-parent homes, do not attend school regularly, don't have enough to eat, cannot purchase books, and are not properly supervised, especially after school.
I think we are too caught with passing exams and do not look at the whole picture. We should be more concerned about moving a child from point A to full potential. What about a child with talent, how do we address this? What is in place to help the child balance a talent of football, cricket or track & field with academics? Should a child who is interested in hairdressing or dressmaking receive this type of training and not be considered successful when he or she passes the exams?
We need to stop thinking of the skilled person as dunces, because they are not tallied in CXC passes. They are just students who chose an area based on their interests. Please think on these things.
Peat Brown
St Catherine
brown_peat@yahoo.com

[Don1]

Absolutely on point.
Unfortunately "educated Jamaicans" prefer simplistic & superficial positions.

BTW juss dis am mi get one green light pon di Star Trek projek ...Helm.. Set course fi di Delta Quadrant... ENGAGE....woiiiieee

[Islandman]

Yeah i was wondering what was happening with that, send me some details when you have it nuh.

[Don1]

cool nuh

[Karl]

1. What are the optimal methodologies required to convert the ~75% of the HS age cohort afflicted by abysmal primary education, surrounded by negative social mores in their communities & severe financial challenges in their households ... to be solid academic performers

Greater emphasis...some say, please put the necessary emphasis on...early-childhood education. Proper development during those early formative years....lay the ground for future development.

2. How best can education policymakers, administrators, teachers and students be re-oriented away from obsolete 20th Century systems, practices & goals .... towards a 21st Century STEM focus synchronized with an appropriate national industrial policy

If you can solve getting them out of their comfort zone and acceptance that 'the present' approaches are 'just not cutting it' you are well on the way to finding of solutions.

Let's make it local (i.e. Jamaica): We have to reject the mediocre results. Merely turning out a relative few high achievers is acceptance of failure as 'good'.

3. What are the most time sensitive & cost effective strategies to implement reforms required by 1 & 2 above

Concentration on early-childhood education, insistence on excellence at each step of the ladder to developing the child to fullest potential...weed-out all the 'dead-weight' inclusive of those who refuse to 'wake up and smell the coffee' [=recognition that current (way) results are producing high rates of failure and as fact result in failures...therefore a new way (policy), new way of doing things (high performance based system) and rewarding performance (merit pay].

Wake mi up when Jamaicans start to debate education in a fashion even approaching that baseline framework...

Debate on education policy or outcomes conducted without addressing those core essentials amounts to uninformed, superficial, puerile & specious yappin' ... par for the course for so called "informed Jamaicans"

..not just agreeing but giving TOTAL AGREEMENT!!!

[Don1]

1000% agree with focus on early childhood education

However I was addressing the HS outcomes... and the FACT that most schools have to engage in massive REMEDIAL work to overcome the systemic deficiencies in the society generally and in schools and student intake particularly

But you're correct...a huge part of the long term solution is at the pre-primary and primary level

That's a much bigger problem than even the HS level... and it's not even being discussed because "there's no money fi dat"

That US$200 Million or whatever borrowed to dig a big hole in Falmouth harbour and a receiving facility for rotund, waddling foreigners to look at dolphins, enjoy cab rides etc... that would have gone a long way to improving the primary system...no??

[Karl]

1000% agree with focus on early childhood education

However I was addressing the HS outcomes... and the FACT that most schools have to engage in massive REMEDIAL work to overcome the systemic deficiencies in the society generally and in schools and student intake particularly

But you're correct...a huge part of the long term solution is at the pre-primary and primary level

That's a much bigger problem than even the HS level... and it's not even being discussed because "there's no money fi dat"

That US$200 Million or whatever borrowed to dig a big hole in Falmouth harbour and a receiving facility for rotund, waddling foreigners to look at dolphins, enjoy cab rides etc... that would have gone a long way to improving the primary system...no??

Thought you were always looking at the 'long haul'?
...but I do understand that when a patient is terribly sick the immediate concern is keeping the patient alive/stabilizing the patient.

I will just say this, too many of our high school administrators and teachers have come to accept the current shambles as normal!

You need those willing to kick over the traces.
Can we say we need more of those like my good friend Ruel Reid at a certain school on Old Hope Road....189 Old hope Road to be exact?

I just hope he does not lose the fiyah innah im belly?

[Don1]

yes... but the schools that are REALLY valuable are the ones that can do the conversion of backward students in an anti-learning environment at home & in community...convert them to solid performers without access to loads of cash.

If we can unlock that puzzle and migrate best practices for that ~75% challenged HS cohort without breaking the bank... then we're onto something.

[Karl]

yes... but the schools that are REALLY valuable are the ones that can do the conversion of backward students in an anti-learning environment at home & in community...convert them to solid performers without access to loads of cash.

If we can unlock that puzzle and migrate best practices for that ~75% challenged HS cohort without breaking the bank... then we're onto something.

Can be done!
Good creative teachers! ...will create excellent learning environment and produce kids each developed to highest age appropriate potential. It is a ladder. The work must be done at each step along the way!!!!

Di high school pickney dem nuh born big an dumb - (They are born not without greatest of capacity to learn but they are under-prepared/under-developed/marred) - suh. Our system (is so designed and managed) and those within it work at producing the lousy results!!!

Yuh tink di 'graduation' results cum suh?
No sah, wi wuk fi dat!!!!
Shame! Shame! Shame!!!