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Examination time
Michael Burke
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Once Labour Day has passed each year you know that the students for CXC will be sitting exams. I believe that some of them start even before Labour Day each year these days. In my day the old GCE started on June 1. Nevertheless, much emphasis is placed on passing examinations even in the face of the fact that those who might not pass are usually far more competent at a given task than many that do.
But the tension is not just in the high schools. It is also at the universities at this time of year. Passing the subjects in one year determines whether or not the student can advance to the next year. And in the case of many students, failure means that the foundation or whatever that granted the scholarship (if the student obtained one), might not make a grant for the continuation of the scholarship for the next year.
And of course, not obtaining a degree makes a great difference in whether or not one will get a job. Indeed, for a very long time, at least the past 20 years in Jamaica, simply having a university degree is not really a guarantee that one will gain employment. But today, thanks to accessible education, children from all sorts of circumstances have been able to advance to the top of Jamaica and indeed the world. We all know of several instances where this has happened.
Free education came into being fully in September 1973 under Michael Manley. In 1986 then prime minister Edward Seaga announced that students would have to pay a cess. We were reminded of this recently when someone wrote a letter to the editor. Well-known trade unionist Lambert Brown also wrote of it in his guest column in the Sunday Gleaner.
OK, so Lambert Brown mistakenly used the wrong term and called it cost sharing. But Delroy Chuck should not mislead the public by accusing Brown of doing so. The bottom line is that in the 1980s under a JLP government, once again parents had to fork out money for education, no matter what it was called. But I say no more on that because I know that the politicians in government will not allow Chuck to get away with that misleading statement in an election year.
In the high school system, students finish their time after five years. Anything over that is an extension and has to be applied for, whether the student goes on to sixth form or repeats fifth. No matter how one explains this to students, there is bawling every year at some high schools that students with even fewer subjects have been allowed into sixth form. The truth is that the greatest power of the school principal is when a student comes to the end of the fifth year.
Think of it. Apart from those coming in on the 10 per cent allowed by the schools, the students who pass GSAT are sent to the school by the Ministry of Education. Not very much the principal can do at that time. Then for a student to be expelled, it is a board decision on the recommendation of the principal.
The Education Code gives only two basic reasons for the expulsion of a student. One is if a student has injured either a teacher or another student. The other is a record of persistently bad behaviour and the code states that expulsion can be effected only after all other possible penalties, including suspension, have been tried.
At the end of the third year there is an academic assessment. I understand that this has been changed to the end of the second year, but I am not sure. At that time, it is decided whether or not the student should be promoted to fourth form, repeat third form or be put out of the school. But again it is based wholly on academics.
At the end of the fifth year, the principal has all power to decide whether or not he or she will retain any student who has completed the fifth year and desires an extension. Most fifth-form students have seen what has happened to others. In addition, they are under pressure by their anxious parents who want them to do well so that they can survive in the world.
If they are going to go on to university they must first have certain minimum qualifications. Fortunately, however, the system has put in place all sorts of things that one could call "Plan B". There are extra lessons, evening classes, institutions where as adults one can be a part-time student and do other things like learning subjects on the Internet. In addition, there are many universities - even local ones - as well as those university correspondence courses, where students can obtain degrees by the credit system.
The problem with this is that there was a time when university campus life was allowed for a situation where the students could be more rounded, what with all sorts of extra-curricular activities. Nowadays, most universities are run like factories that simply produce students with degrees. The worst part of the whole thing is that many university students are fooled into believing that because they have a degree no one can tell them anything.
Michael Burke
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Once Labour Day has passed each year you know that the students for CXC will be sitting exams. I believe that some of them start even before Labour Day each year these days. In my day the old GCE started on June 1. Nevertheless, much emphasis is placed on passing examinations even in the face of the fact that those who might not pass are usually far more competent at a given task than many that do.
But the tension is not just in the high schools. It is also at the universities at this time of year. Passing the subjects in one year determines whether or not the student can advance to the next year. And in the case of many students, failure means that the foundation or whatever that granted the scholarship (if the student obtained one), might not make a grant for the continuation of the scholarship for the next year.
And of course, not obtaining a degree makes a great difference in whether or not one will get a job. Indeed, for a very long time, at least the past 20 years in Jamaica, simply having a university degree is not really a guarantee that one will gain employment. But today, thanks to accessible education, children from all sorts of circumstances have been able to advance to the top of Jamaica and indeed the world. We all know of several instances where this has happened.
Free education came into being fully in September 1973 under Michael Manley. In 1986 then prime minister Edward Seaga announced that students would have to pay a cess. We were reminded of this recently when someone wrote a letter to the editor. Well-known trade unionist Lambert Brown also wrote of it in his guest column in the Sunday Gleaner.
OK, so Lambert Brown mistakenly used the wrong term and called it cost sharing. But Delroy Chuck should not mislead the public by accusing Brown of doing so. The bottom line is that in the 1980s under a JLP government, once again parents had to fork out money for education, no matter what it was called. But I say no more on that because I know that the politicians in government will not allow Chuck to get away with that misleading statement in an election year.
In the high school system, students finish their time after five years. Anything over that is an extension and has to be applied for, whether the student goes on to sixth form or repeats fifth. No matter how one explains this to students, there is bawling every year at some high schools that students with even fewer subjects have been allowed into sixth form. The truth is that the greatest power of the school principal is when a student comes to the end of the fifth year.
Think of it. Apart from those coming in on the 10 per cent allowed by the schools, the students who pass GSAT are sent to the school by the Ministry of Education. Not very much the principal can do at that time. Then for a student to be expelled, it is a board decision on the recommendation of the principal.
The Education Code gives only two basic reasons for the expulsion of a student. One is if a student has injured either a teacher or another student. The other is a record of persistently bad behaviour and the code states that expulsion can be effected only after all other possible penalties, including suspension, have been tried.
At the end of the third year there is an academic assessment. I understand that this has been changed to the end of the second year, but I am not sure. At that time, it is decided whether or not the student should be promoted to fourth form, repeat third form or be put out of the school. But again it is based wholly on academics.
At the end of the fifth year, the principal has all power to decide whether or not he or she will retain any student who has completed the fifth year and desires an extension. Most fifth-form students have seen what has happened to others. In addition, they are under pressure by their anxious parents who want them to do well so that they can survive in the world.
If they are going to go on to university they must first have certain minimum qualifications. Fortunately, however, the system has put in place all sorts of things that one could call "Plan B". There are extra lessons, evening classes, institutions where as adults one can be a part-time student and do other things like learning subjects on the Internet. In addition, there are many universities - even local ones - as well as those university correspondence courses, where students can obtain degrees by the credit system.
The problem with this is that there was a time when university campus life was allowed for a situation where the students could be more rounded, what with all sorts of extra-curricular activities. Nowadays, most universities are run like factories that simply produce students with degrees. The worst part of the whole thing is that many university students are fooled into believing that because they have a degree no one can tell them anything.
vbmenu_register("postmenu_28884", true); 
...you get it right....
..but, that's OK! I guess??? 
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