Submitted by Observing
Having heard comments on education in both the upper house I woke up this morning compelled to write a few words.
I have grown tired of the “abolish common entrance” campaign, especially coming mainly from persons in lofty positions who have never taught or worked in a primary school setting or with children of special needs or learning deficits. Yes, the exam by itself needs changing. However, framing our educational problems around a single exam on a single day is myopic at best, misleading at worse. A few points for discussion or debate.
1. The Common Entrance Exam by itself is not the problem. The Leader of the Opposition was right. The exam is a snapshot in time that captures a moment. The child who ends up not meeting the 50% mark, either had a crisis around that time, or, was always underperforming and nothing done over the years to address the reasons for the underperformance.
2. Our education system still does not systematically identify AND intervene to help students with challenges whatever they may be. Not enough counselors, not enough social workers, not enough specialist teachers, not enough therapist not enough remedial teachers. Further, there are not enough indicative psychological, social and diagnostic assessments done. How then do we know what problems we need to solve?
3. Regardless of a child’s performance at Common Entrance, the real focus should be ensuring the school they go to is equipped, ready and able to execute a programme to serve the already identified needs of that child and provide them with a pathway towards maximizing their own individual potential. Where or whatever schools are called becomes irrelevant once ALL of them focus on what’s important.
4. A few solutions to start the ball rolling,
– Introduce continuous assessment supported by the comprehensive use of technology to accurately store, track and analyse student data
– Use a range of assessments (academic and psychometric) during the two (2) exit years of primary school rather than one exam with only Maths and English
– revamp the secondary school allocation process not based solely on one mark but (1) and (2) above
– Fairly allocate financial and other resources at secondary school to meet the real needs and to effectively execute the specially designed curriculum and programmes. One size never fit all.
– Stop talking and invest Investment in early childhood and primary education with a commitment to assessing and supporting every single child along their journey through targeted interventions and parental support. All of course, recorded, tracked and analysed.
These are just a few suggestions but there are many more and many more areas that need attention. But, imagine, these and other ideas were shared with both political parties and the Ministry of Education. Based on the Estimates Debate it seems only one has been willing to listen. The other(s) seem content to just plod along aimlessly in uncertainty and utter confusion.
Even worse is that the new Minister has spoken at least three times at length about reform, yet, I cannot identify a single concrete, tangible, feasible, executable proposal that the public can easily connect, relate to and have faith in. It is clear that neither he nor any of the other past and present Ministers have a realistic clue of what to do.
As reggae artist Luciano once sang, Heaven help us all.
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