Reinventing education in the Caribbean - Part 2

Didacus Jules, Contributor

OVER THE past 20 years, Caribbean education has been through several reforms. Yesterday, I looked at two of the five reasons we need to redefine education. Today, we will examine the other three reasons and also look at what needs to be done to fix the system.

The first two reasons why we need to redefine education in the Caribbean are: Tinkering with the system no longer works, we need a new vehicle of human empower-ment and social transformation and the implications of the inter-nalisation of education in a globalised world.

Obsolescence of knowledge and the information revolution

A third reason is the impact of the information revolution and the increasing pace of the obso-lescence of knowledge.

Information and computer technologies have completely changed the game for education. Research and access to information is now instantaneous and the technologies have facilitated the hybridisation of knowledge to an unprecedented extent. As a result, it has been estimated that by 2020 the knowledge base could be changing every two hours! Whatever the exact pace of change, it is sufficiently rapid to mean that traditional syllabuses and curricula will no longer serve as adequate registers of received knowledge.

A major implication of this paradigm shift is that the age-old question of what is to be taught will shift to what are the competencies that are required to certify mastery in any particular knowledge domain. Content will give way to competence; analytical skills will supersede memorisation; and interdisciplinarity will reinforce key competencies.

Our education systems are no longer working

Because we have not approached reform in a truly systemic manner, the knock effect of problems in one subsector creates other problems in another - inattention to early childhood development is impacting performance in primary, the deficits in primary education translate into weak performance at secondary, and the absence of core competencies required for excelling at tertiary education.

Ironically, Caribbean govern-ments spend a much larger percentage of public money on education than many developed countries, and in most Caribbean countries educational expenditure as a percentage of GDP is higher or on par with many OECD countries but performance is not commen-surate to that investment.

These challenges appear daunting but at CXC we believe that the solutions are simple. The scope of what needs to be done is immense, but it can be manageable if we take a systematic and systemic approach. There are four pillars that are foundations to the solution:

1. Agree on a philosophy of education in the contemporary Caribbean.

2. Establish seamless education system.

3. Make learning fun.

4. Attune our assessment to key competencies and global competitiveness.

A philosophy of education in the contemporary Caribbean

Articulating the philosophy of education is an essential first step which establishes the vision and purpose of education. Accepting that education is central to any national development strategy, and taking account of the unprece-dented changes that have taken place in the world over the past decade in particular, and the grave challenges as well as opportunities posed to developing countries, we must start with basic principles.

The articulation that philosophy of education must ensure that there is consistency between the regional and the national. These two agendas are not inconsistent because the region must provide the architectural framework within which we can productively establish our particularities

At CXC, we have been promoting two essential principles to inform this philosophy: the 'Statement of the Ideal Caribbean Person' and the 'UNESCO Imperatives for Learning in the 21st Century'.

Establish a seamless education system

As has been argued earlier, educational quality cannot be resolved by focusing on only specific stages. Educational quality is not a compartmentalised thing - it requires consistent effort across every level of the system. Attention to quality at each level is like the passing of a quality baton in a lengthy relay race - only when it is successfully passed can we expect exemplary performance in the succeeding level.

In order to realise this, our education system needs to be reshaped as a seamless system in which opportunity is open to all with varying pathways to success according to interests, capability and development pace. The paradigm of Education for All promoted at the international level by UNESCO, and adopted by the multilaterals with significant input from civil society internationally, has created a positive environment for the realisation of this solution. The notion of access to education from the cradle to the grave has now moved into the policy mainstream.

A seamless education system is one in which there is an adequate articulation of levels and the rationalisation of the competencies and outcomes expected of every stage. Unlike the inherited post-colonial paradigm, it does not naturally assume wastage as one moves up the educational ladder, but facilitates continuous learning through different pathways.

Make learning fun

A major challenge is to engage young people in education in ways that they find exciting and which inculcates a strong desire to learn, to think critically and to improve themselves. We can only achieve this if we are ultimately able - at every level of the education system - to make learning fun.

To make learning fun requires a simultaneous reinvention of curriculum and the encouragement of new pedagogies of engagement and discovery. In every knowledge domain, our curriculum must embrace familiar Caribbean reality as a launching pad for discovery and for questioning in order to help our students to both understand and to transform that reality.

The focus on Caribbean realities must not, however, represent an introspection that excludes an understanding of the global and the international - in this regard, we must be guided by the slogan of "thinking local and acting global". Caribbean people are among the most migrant populations in the world, and this dimension of our reality necessitates that our education be world class and globally acceptable.

This requires greater levels of inventiveness and stronger competencies of our teachers, whose own professional formation must be changed to empower them to utilise these new approaches.

The current technologies of play which are so addictive to young people - Nintendo Wii, the Internet, mobile phones, Gameboys etc - must all be turned to educational advantage. The power of ICT can exponentially improve the pace and quality of learning and facilitate students taking greater responsibility for their learning.

Assessment attuned to competencies and to global competitiveness

As the value of education increases in a highly competitive world, qualifications and certifica-tion becomes even more high stakes. Hanson (1994) asserted that "The individual in contemporary society is not so much described by tests as constructed by them."

If we say that the purpose of Caribbean education is to produce the Ideal Caribbean Person and that this person should have the ability to learn, to be, to do and to live together, then our assessment processes must reflect these competencies and attributes. Assessment can no longer simply be a test of academic ability or retention of knowledge; it must attest that the candidate demonstrates the knowledge, skills and competencies reflective of the total person.

At this juncture in history, the human race is facing almost unmanageable problems, many of which are the consequence of our own greed and insensitivity to nature.

The threats are environmental, political, social, economic, and so on. In virtually every sphere, the problems beset us.

And in the midst of all of this, the fragile archipelago of Our Caribbean sits like a fleet of fragile boats buffeted by the international storm and incapacitated by its own limitations.

There are many things that need to be fixed, and fixed urgently, but the preparation of the next generation is one of those responsibilities and challenges that cannot be postponed. And this ultimately is the urgency and the necessity of reinventing education.

Didacus Jules is registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council.