By Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor 
Henry-Wilson
EDUCATION MINISTER Maxine Henry-Wilson has pointed to an urgent need to address the inequities in the education system under which the best performing students in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) continue to be sent to three or four "elite" schools.
The practice of "bunching children" who do well on their Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) into schools considered elite institutions will eventually harm the country's education system, she said.
Speaking at the Gleaner's Editors' Forum on Thursday, Mrs. Henry-Wilson said there were clear inequities in the system which the society as a whole will have to address.
Noting that her Ministry was seriously looking into the situation, Mrs. Henry-Wilson warned that many high schools could suffer as a result of the present system.
"One of the things that I did was to get a report of the GSAT scores which painted a telling picture," the Minister said. "I know we boast of schools that get 10 O'Levels all the time and get all the scholarships. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether they are really the best schools or do they get the best students?. The initial response must be that they get the best children."
Mrs. Henry-Wilson said the situation was one that created an elite system among the schools with parents preferring to send their children to the so-called "name brand schools".
"When you look at the GSAT scores, all the best children go to these schools," the Minister added. "Up to yesterday I had a principal of a high school complaining to me that he got some children who had very good scores only to have their parents take them away and send them to other schools. The perception is one of status - where the bunching of children who do well is prevalent in about three or four schools."
She noted that there was a hierarchy in the placing of students. "You have a second level set of schools that get the children that didn't do too badly. Then the other schools get the other students. The scores of these other students are not very good - not very commendable."
The Minister said she had asked the Ministry's research department to do a trace study.
"I have given them a benchmark score - the schools from which they came. I believe that's where we have to start the fixing. That is an exercise which we are doing but the real question is one of equity. Whether it is going to assist our education system if we have the students with the best scores all placed in one school as oppose to being scattered throughout the system to pull up the other students," she said.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson conceded however that schools were not all at the same level- that some needed to be upgraded in terms of the quality of equipment and staff. She said the government had implemented a development plan for schools to address these deficiencies.
The long-standing method used to place students coming from the primary level into the high schools - the Common Entrance Examination was phased out in 1999. However, many parents and teachers have been complaining that its replacement, the GSAT, has only served to re-inforce the inequities Mrs. Henry-Wilson described and badly needs to be amended.
"It's a better system than the Common Entrance," notes Erfa Allen, a teacher from Priory Infant and Primary School in St. Ann. "The students have to write and express themselves which is good. The real question is one of equity."
Nicole Campbell, a teacher at Exchange All-Age in Ocho Rios, however, sees it as a question of choice. "Parents should be free to send their children wherever they want to," she said. "That's their right".
Mrs. Henry-Wilson also conceded that it was not an easy issue but one that required a complete and thorough investigation.
"The other side of it is that some of these quality students - if scattered throughout the system - may end up getting pulled down themselves," she said. "I still maintain though that it is not fair for the schools that get the poorer students to spend all their time, energy and resources trying to bring these students up to par. Shouldn't they also benefit from having children that are not doing badly?."
The Minister said it was disappointing to see how low some of the GSAT scores were, noting that those students would require special attention when placed in the high schools.
"The first thing to do is to look at where they are coming from and why their scores are so low," Mrs. Henry-Wilson said. "These are challenges we face in our quest for quality education. "
