Silver Pen winner tackles two-tier education system

Phillip Chambers, who was yesterday presented with The Gleaner's Silver Pen Award for his Letter of the Day published on June 25, titled 'Competition in Education', says he was pleased to have been selected for the prestigious award.

Chambers said his motivation for writing the letter was his concern over Jamaica's two-tier education system comprising traditional high schools, where several Jamaicans sought to enrol their children, versus those high schools offering a vocational education which many persons see as demeaning.

"If you're not attending Campion or Immaculate out of the GSAT (Grade Six Achievement Test) cohort, or another traditional high school, it's almost as if you're deemed a failure," Chambers told The Gleaner yesterday.

"The quality of education at the technical level is almost on par with the traditional high school. It's just that they are focused on different areas of interest."

Scrap zoning system

In his letter, Chambers had also called for the scrapping of the zoning system for students based on their home address, calling it sociologically and psychologically demeaning to pupils already exposed to an educational system which saw anything outside the traditional as representing failure.

He pointed out that, in recent years, many non-traditional institutions had been outclassing competitors from traditional institutions in the boys' and girls' championships as well as the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions, due to the expansion and enhancement of ISSA programmes.

"In terms of sport, there has been some development but in terms of the academic programmes, I'm not seeing where much emphasis is placed on getting the technical schools their respect or the level of funding on par," Chambers said.

He noted that skilled tradesmen, such as carpenters and electricians, were urgently required to take Jamaica's development forward, otherwise the country would pay dearly if this imbalance was not addressed soon.

"I think (Education) Minister (Andrew) Holness has been trying to bridge that gap but I think it needs some more input and initiative right now to really accomplish that goal," he said.

Chambers is pleased with the work being done by HEART but wants more funding provided for technical high schools in order to bring them to the same level of the traditional high schools.

He also feels a public education campaign needs to be undertaken, given the public's perception of technical schools.

"Parents need to be sensitised to the idea that the technical schools are just as competent. It's just they are focused on different areas of education," he said.

"There are a lot of persons with learning disabilities as we call them that don't necessarily fit within the traditional system but they've done well in the technical vocational high school and this is where we need to go."