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Common Entrance Examination: Termites Jonesing!

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Submitted by William Skinner
Hon Ronald Jones, Minister of Education
Hon Ronald Jones, Minister of Education

Once again the annual ritual surrounding the release of the Common Entrance Examination results, has taken center stage. While the Minister of Education rants and raves about the mathematics results, the Principal of the University of the West Indies seems down spirited about the science results at Cave Hill. Any alert observer will see the connection. If the foundation is bad the building would eventually fall.

The Minister of Education refuses to see that if the results are deteriorating under his watch, it may be time for him to move on to another ministry. But we have little regard for holding our leaders accountable. Dragging retired teachers from their gardening and other hobbies to teach math will not work because there is no retired teacher in his or her right mind, who will leave healthy flowers and vegetables, to return to the quagmire that now envelops the Ministry of Education.

Our entire education system is on the verge of collapse but like many other decaying structures the final fall may take some time. Carpenters know about new coats of paint giving the impression that there are no termites. However the termites are there and they will get the job done eventually. Truth is that we are afraid to “touch’ a single rotten board because we fear that the house will fall down. Just slap some paint on it!

We went about claiming that we had an almost one hundred percent literacy rate, while some of our children sitting the Common entrance, could not construct a simple sentence or count to fifty. The loquacious principal of the University at Cave Hill talked about a graduate in every household, while the employers were complaining that many graduates had not mastered basic English. No problem –just flood the place with them and hope for the best.

So next year around this same time, we will parade the “bright” students and some Minister will talk about math and English results. And some principal of Cave Hill will lament that the science results are not encouraging. The termites will be the only focused group on the island; slowly but surely making sure the house crumbles. Then we will call in retirees from the pest control industry.

They will probably say on arrival: We cannot treat dust-too late!

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166 responses to “Common Entrance Examination: Termites Jonesing!”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Good perspective on the issue.

  2. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    A sure sign that we are dealing with a lotta shiite…..
    No accountability….no one is responsible for the results….

    Who the hell in their right mind would have made Jones Minister of Education in the first place?
    Steupssss

  3. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    The answer to Math inadequacy is to use the Khan Academy on the internet, it is free and wont retire.

  4. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Isn’t it time to mothball this examination? I thought Jones was in favour of revamping the CEE until he ran into some disgruntled parents who can’t see beyond their little angels getting into HC or QC. Bajans remain stuck in the 50’s.

    This is another example of Gov’t accepting the status quo when it stopped being efficient eons ago, I’ve written before the HC and QC graduates end up at Cave Hill just like those from other schools but the old school tie remains important in a parochial society like Bim.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    You mentioned accountably, four years later where are we with this recommendations from the NACE report? Your message has been consistent.

    Another Meaningless Education Report From NACE

    Posted on June 23, 2010 by David | 180 comments

    Submitted by Bush Tea The report from the National Advisory Committee on Education (NACE) committee that has worked over the past two years to compile recommendations for the ministry of education on the future direction of education in Barbados is … Continue reading →

  6. The onlooker Avatar
    The onlooker

    I am from Grenada, and it is the same thing down here. When the results are revealed the Minister of Education laments about the poor result in Mathematics and English and the necessity to go back to basics. But at the end of the day it is just a cycle with nothing being done to remedy the situation. The teachers need to be trained and retrained on a continuous basis.

  7. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    There is nothing wrong with the common entrance exam. It allows transfer of students from primary to secondary school by MERIT!

    “The HC and QC graduates end up at Cave Hill just like those from other schools” also by merit. Whats the problem.
    The problem is as on of my teachers at HC (UG CRICK) used to say WHAT MATTERS IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU GET HERE

  8. lemuel Avatar
    lemuel

    Sargeant:
    when you moth boll this exam, the little angels with their parents social influence would still go to HC and QC!!

  9. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    The reality is that the cleverest must be placed in the best schools. WHY?

    A key example is the American with the HIGHEST IQ NEVER RECORDED!
    The guy broke the scale, they could NOT attribute a number! This fella went to an ordinary HS and was bored shitless, knew the Teachers were idiots and that his fellow students hated clever people so he did not bother with school work at all. Played Football in HS though.

    So what did this GENIUS do? He became a BOUNCER at a bar and lived in a converted double garage! WASTED Talent that could have found the cure for Cancer, simplified Cold Fusion, designed an airplabe that could get my ass to Singapore or Australia in a couple hrs rather than 20-26!

    Interestingly, he eventually met and married an Uni Prof who stated that she was the Idiot in the family with an IQ of 168!

    I shudder to think that the same could have happened to GP and all those HC giants I went to school with who are Profs at MIT, UWI, UBC etc. Some of them are WORLD RENOWNED in Pediatrics, Molecular Biology, Medicine etc

    The real problem with the CEE is that it does not identify who will waste their spot at QC/ HC etc. The school and teachers should have a system to encourage the troublesome chaps BUT eventually the bad fellas should be sent to a lesser school and some poor kid who is doing well at a B school should move up. Had a family member who moved up from Foundation to St Michael’s about 20yrs back. I certainly would have put in an effort with the correct system and threat of losing my spot at HC.

    The reality is that clever kids must be identified early and placed in a competitive environment. Naturally, there are exceptions like my cousin who went to Foundation, a good school, and won a Bdos Schol.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    Why are not able to focus on those operating below the mean who have to endure hell post 11 plus?

    Why are we not able to focus on implementing a performance management system to ensure our teachers are delivering to the standard required?

    Why is the Chief Education Officer now advising that ALL teachers have to deliver reading instruction to students? Isn’t this a perquisite to teaching?

  11. bk Avatar
    bk

    @ Bush Tea
    The same can be said about previous ministers of education. Our damn problem in Barbados is that we want to use systems and tactics that may have worked in the last century, now. It cant work.

  12. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @David
    The truth is that most teachers dont give a RODENTS RECTUM!

    I told a Bajan Principal that I had access/ contacts with the Best School in Canada that was tied to the Ontario Institute of Education, part of UofT, and could introduce him to the correct people for resources etc. Chap looked at me as if I was from outer space!

    Had a nephew at Lodge about 12 yrs back, his teacher could not teach the pre lunch class, as she had to fry fishcakes to sell at lunch!!!
    If that is happening at one of the better schools, I dont even want to imagine what is happening at the lower levels.

    The attitude is all wrong, Independence did not bring a happy go lucky life, it merely presented an opportunity to build a great lil Nation BUT we are FAILING! Bim requires a Benevolent Dictatorship where one is either part of the solution or U are released to a Paro’s life. This is where Unions encourage pure shyte by not buckling down to fulfilling their part of the bargain.

  13. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The problem is that you need to have a level playing if you want to get rid of the SCREAMING TEST.pun intended.lol

    All schools would have to be given equal resources.

  14. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ MoneyBrain
    It is no wonder you are rich….
    Shiite man…..you got sense. GP is right too….
    Sarge….you see the difference between commissioned men and NCOs now….? 🙂

    As Bushie ALWAYS said, the problem with the 11+ is that we don’t have ENOUGH of it…..

    EVERY DAMN YEAR we should be evaluating students’ performances and MOVING the high performers to HC, while shifting the shirkers to schools more suited for THEIR displayed talents….
    AT ALL LEVELS….

    To do this, we would test talents in areas like science, arts, sport, music, industry, commerce, and even in “playing the ass”…..and CONTINUOUSLY move students into areas that BEST suit their skills, talent and interests.

    SAME SHIITE with teachers!
    Some smock who have been MIS-teaching science should NOT be allowed to continue messing up students year after year after year…..

    SAME SHIITE with Principals….
    Damn jokers who can’t run a snow cone cart at Kadooment getting to frig up a whole school year after year after year…?

    SAME SHIITE FOR MINISTERS….done the lotta jonesing….

    Wait…..is that not what a MERITOCRACY IS…….?

    Steupssss…but…
    Such things just do not click with brass bowls…..

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Is it not a boring affair every year at this time (post screaming test) we endure this debate about the pros and cons of the exam? What does it say about us?

    But we like it so!

  16. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    There are stories of men coming into classes at UWI with aged brown colored notes. Seems they do not seek to improve.

    Years ago when I started teaching Biochem, I found a site from the University of Leeds. Man says “It is the least of the problem today to just know the ten steps in glycolysis and the their enzymes. Today you need to know the intricacies of step 1 and step 5 etc. It was an eye opener.

    Since then every time I go to teach a section of the course, I make a search on that section online to look for a new illustration, or a new nuance to insert into my ppt Of course it does not hurt to review the old stuff the same time.
    Teachers need to know how to reach out to students.

    I once taught a Chemistry class at St Leonards and use salt breads and sweet breads . to illustrate the concept that the atoms of an element are similar, but different to those of another element. It obviously worked, because one particular fellow remembers it 40 years later.

    Teachers must make lessons fun! Get the students to laugh and learn at the same time.

  17. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    GP
    U like U was no Sweet Bread as a teacher!lol

  18. Winston Avatar
    Winston

    With all the concern being expressed about ways to improve education in Barbados and hence the Common Entrance results, here is a novel idea –

    Ask the teachers who actually teach the children on a daily basis!

    The really pitiful thing about all of this is that there are so many tools and resources to ascertain the learning styles, intelligences, aptitudes etc which would have improved our education by leaps and bounds. Alas, in most schools, the teachers are not allowed to use these resources, for some archaic and silly reasons.

    Then, what about all the educational theses and experiments done over the years at UWI and Erdiston that have been just collected, dumped into a box, and now either burned or lost?

    This is the only profession where non-professionals are the decision makers.

  19. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    @GEORGIE PORGIE June 13, 2014 at 8:53 AM “There is nothing wrong with the common entrance exam. It allows transfer of students from primary to secondary school by MERIT!”
    @MoneyBrain June 13, 2014 at 9:25 AM “The reality is that the cleverest must be placed in the best schools.”

    Hear, hear!!!

    No wonda de 2 ‘o wunna is Harrison Kolih fellas.

    Pity is that wunna does live outsida Barbados though.

  20. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    It s high time we rename it the Common Entrance Extermination !!!

  21. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    David

    DD is totally unqualified to weigh in on this discussion.

    But I have to say your termite analogy is brilliant.

  22. David Avatar
    David

    @DD

    BU is responsible for the title only.

  23. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    Anonymous | June 13, 2014 at 10:49 AM |
    @GEORGIE PORGIE June 13, 2014 at 8:53 AM “There is nothing wrong with the common entrance exam. It allows transfer of students from primary to secondary school by MERIT!”
    @MoneyBrain June 13, 2014 at 9:25 AM “The reality is that the cleverest must be placed in the best schools.”

    Hear, hear!!!

    No wonda de 2 ‘o wunna is Harrison Kolih fellas.

    Pity is that wunna does live outsida Barbados though.

    yes I live outside of Barbados after I could not get a job in Barbados
    WHAT YOU WANT BE TO DO JACKASS? BULL?

    LIVING OUTSIDE OF BARBADOS IS NOT A CRIME
    MANY BAJANS LIVE OUT SIDE BARBADOS

    THIS HAS BEEN SO FOR TIME IMMEMORIAL
    AT LEAST I WORKED THERE FOR 20 YEARS

  24. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    AND YES IT IS A PITTY THAT I DID NOT GET A CHANCE TO DO MORE FOR IMPROVING THINGS IN HEALTH IN BIM

  25. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    David

    Thanks for pointing that out.

    William Skinner’s analogy is brilliant.

    MoneyBrain

    “I told a Bajan Principal that I had access/ contacts with the Best School in Canada that was tied to the Ontario Institute of Education, part of UofT, and could introduce him to the correct people for resources etc. Chap looked at me as if I was from outer space!”

    Same old mindset. “We don’t need no Canadians (or Americans or Brits) to come down hey to tell we how to teach we chidren”

  26. Common Entrance Examination: Termites Jonesing! – Black In Barbados

    […] Education rants and raves about the mathematics results, the Principal of the University of … Continue reading →<img alt="" border="0" […]

  27. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Georgie Porgie

    “You like you wasn’t a sweet bread as a teacher PG”

    You sure it was St. Leonard’s you taught at PG? Because you said on more than one occasion, that the students you taught at St. Leonard’s could hardly read and write. And you’re using salt – bread and sweet- bread to demonstrate the concept of atoms to a bunch of illiterates.

  28. GEORGIE PORGIE Avatar
    GEORGIE PORGIE

    MB
    2 years ago while teaching at a so called Medversity in St Lucia they asked me to teach Medical Terminology to a class of nursing students.

    I go in there and a nice slim chick seems to be napping in the front row.

    I said to her IF YOU SLEEP IN MY CLASS I WILL KISS YOU AND TURN YOU INTO A FROG. Place in uproar! One girl sings out YOU SUPPOSED TO KISS THE FROG AND TURN INTO A PRINCESS.

    Whole class and I had a good laugh, and no one appeared to sleep for the rest of the term, and we had some “robust discussion:”

  29. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Georgie Porgie

    I attended St. Leonard’s Boys Secondary during the time you taught there PG. And I am sure you remember: Mr. Daniel the head master, Mr. Archer, Mr. Hope and Mr. Dottin; just to name a few. You do remember when the calisoyian Adonijah Alleyne taught at St. Leonard’s back in the early 70’s? This is when he sported an Afro back in the day and was hardly known by anyone!

  30. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Georgie Porgie

    I am sure you remember Adonijah Alleyne quite well back in those days because he was one of your Harrison College classmates? An arrogant prick!

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Domkey

    Please make a comment and move on. Your JA comments are detracting from the discussion. Final warning.

  32. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David

    I am sorry David. I thought I was adding to the discussion by exposing and obvious truth about Georgie Porgie. I’ll follow your lead David.

  33. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Winston

    I do agree with you because here in America and particular in my state, teachers are given the latitude to implement their own teaching strategies to achieve the objective criteria.

  34. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    @moneybrain and Due DIligence”Same old mindset. “We don’t need no Canadians (or Americans or Brits) to come down hey to tell we how to teach we chidren”

    Sometime ya gotta watch for the foreigners though. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) recently had to fire their head (he had headed up the Hamilton School Board previously) because he had plagarised letters to newspapers, and now he is being investigated to see whether he did not also plagarize his doctoral degree. LOL!!!! Now he is asking the court to ask the University of Toronto to proceed with haste on the plargarization case or to drop the case, because “he is being hindered in his search for executive type jobs”. LOL!!!!!!!!

    We don’t want that naughy Canadian down here. LOL!!!!!!!!

    Ah Lie!!! Moneybrain?

    Ah lie!! Hants?

    Foreign doesn’t necessarily mean better.

    Sometimes ya have to stick with the rascal ya know rather than the rascal ya don’t know.

  35. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Winston
    Students here in grade school as well as middle school, are given the CMT/ Connecticut Mastery Test and the SBT Smarter Balance Test, at the end of each year to determine where their at before their move on to High School. In these two tests the teacher is able to assess the student’s weaknesses as well as strengths and thereby formulates the appropriate teaching strategies to address the student’s weaknesses prior to high school.

  36. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    “Had a family member who moved up from Foundation to St Michael’s about 20yrs back.”

    Money……..i was just about to say that common entrance marks for Foundation is only one mark away from St. Michael, with the advent of even more sixth form schools, a brilliant idea, there will be more scholars in Barbados but they need a way out of that stagnant hole.

  37. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Anonymous | June 13, 2014 at 12:53 PM |

    In Canada they do investigate the Big Ups, and do fire them if they are found to be bad rascals.

  38. David Avatar
    David

    We should widen the discussion and appreciate even in the ‘great’ USA there is a struggle to get rid of bad teachers from the system. It is a conversation we need to have. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to rid bad teachers from the US system; to their credit they are trying to deal with it. Our government needs to place this matter on the national agenda and begin to act. If it is one thing we learnt from the Alexandra Inquiry , there is a sloth to how we make decisions in Barbados even though the rot can be seen.

    Judge strikes down California teacher tenure

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge struck down tenure and other job protections for California’s public school teachers Tuesday, saying such laws harm students — especially poor and minority ones — by saddling them with bad teachers who are almost impossible to fire.

    In a landmark decision that could influence the gathering debate over tenure across the country, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu cited the historic case of Brown v. Board of Education in ruling that students have a fundamental right to equal education.

    Siding with the nine students who brought the lawsuit, he ruled that California’s laws on hiring and firing in schools have resulted in "a significant number of grossly ineffective teachers currently active in California classrooms."

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/11/californiateacher-tenure/10313471/

  39. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Anonymous
    Foreign does not necessarily mean better. You’re probably right about that, but you’ll be a fool to close your eyes to the foreign option.

  40. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David
    Before you start your discussion regarding the American educational system, there is one thing you ought to understand about education in America: there isn’t a unilateral system of education in America. And a valued education in America depends on the district in which the child lives and the financial resources the district pours in the school system there. So it would be disingenuous to attempt to compare Barbados system of education with that of America because one is unified and the other is fragmented.

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @Anonymous

    What Moneybrain was offering could have benefited Barbados.

    The Chris Spence scandal is irrelevant. He is just one overly ambitious educator who cheated.

    http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/25/chris_spence_breaks_silence_on_plagiarism_scandal.html

  42. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David

    Don’t take my word for it. Because in America, inner-city schools are some of the worse and suburban schools where the money is at, are some of the best.

  43. David Avatar
    David

    Final comment on the US educational system. The comparison to the US system is to make the point we need to always be overseeing reform based on the gaps which are present in an imperfect system. This is the job of the government and civil society is to be advocates for necessary change. This is important given the competing priorities of governments. We are discussing the need for dynamic reform!

    A Battle Over School Reform: Michelle Rhee vs. Diane Ravitch

    As the No Child Left Behind era ends and Common Core begins, two education heavyweights face-off over what we’ve learned and where we’ve gone wrong.

    BY JOHN BUNTIN | JANUARY 2014

    After being a Teach For America teacher and Washington, D.C.’s schools superintendent, Michelle Rhee (left) started a nonprofit advocacy group called StudentsFirst to mobilize school reformers. Diane Ravitch (right) began as an education historian, and after serving in George H.W. Bush’s cabinet, she became an outspoken critic of the so-called reform movement. DailyPrincetonian.com/Grace Jeon


    When President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law in early 2002, he described the sweeping education overhaul as a landmark piece of civil rights legislation. Closing the achievement gap between white students and non-Asian minority students was, the former president liked to say, “the civil rights struggle of our time.”

    Many still see it that way. Every year, thousands of the nation’s most idealistic college graduates sign up for two years of service with Teach For America (TFA). Successful charter schools such as KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) make extreme demands on teachers and staff to prepare disadvantaged students for college. Their rallying cry is that inspired, dedicated teachers can improve educational achievement—no matter the obstacles of poverty or racial disparity.

  44. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David
    Bush’s No Child Left Behind, seems practical in theory but in reality it is impossible to achieve. Because it is not fair to the rest of the students in a school, to have a failing school because one child fails to meet the grade.

  45. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David, a superintendent of a school district in America, is similar to the Minister of Education in Barbados. And there are hundreds of the school districts within one single state.

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    The bottom line is this.

    The Primary school system must improved to make sure that more students enter the Secondary school system well prepared.

    The Secondary school system must be improved to create a level playing field and to make sure that more students enter University or the work force well prepared.

    The BCC and the SJPP should be improved to the level of Canadian colleges like Sheridan and Humber college especially in areas like Industrial design.

  47. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    Hants, I agrew!

  48. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @WW
    The problem with education in Bim is the over emphasis on classical versus Technical. We require many more Applied workers than PhD in Poli Sci. Bim is not some richass Nation than can afford erudite nonsense

  49. David Avatar
    David

    How Barbadians see education must be discussed against the background we have become a very class conscious country.

  50. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    @we have become a very class conscious country.

    Barbados is the least class conscious country in the English speaking Caribbean.

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