Jamaica has high pupil-teacher ratio - UNDP

Tyrone Reid, Senior Staff Reporter

Despite a slight four percentage increase in the number of children who mastered the 2011 Grade Four Literacy Test when compared to the 2010 sitting, Jamaica still has the highest pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level in the Caribbean.

Statistics contained in the 2011 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) revealed that the country's pupil-teacher ratio was 27.7 to 1. The UNDP did not have a figure for what percentage of teachers in Jamaica was actually trained to teach.

The UNDP defined pupil-teacher ratio as "the average number of pupils (students) per teacher in primary education in a given school year".

Some experts believe Haiti has a higher pupil teacher ratio than Jamaica but no data was provided for the struggling Caribbean nation. However, Haiti occupied spot number 158 and was adjudged to be a country with "low human development".

On the other hand, Jamaica was listed as a country with "high human development". So was Cuba. The data also revealed that 100 per cent of teachers in Cuba were trained to teach. Cuba also boasted a 9.4 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level.

Two countries which were graded as having low human development had a lower pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level than Jamaica. Liberia is one of them. According to the UNDP's data, the West African republic has a ratio of 24.3. Jamaica was ranked 79; one place below last year's ranking on the list of 187 countries while Liberia occupied slot number 182.

Efforts to get the education ministry to specifically address the education-related stats in the UNDP's human development report were unsuccessful.

Audrey Sewell, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education said the data was being analysed and a response would be provided at the end of that process.

The UNDP report lists Jamaica in a 33-country group it tagged Latin America and the Caribbean. While Jamaica is at the back of the class among Caribbean countries in the pupil-teacher ratio category, only six Latin American countries have a higher pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level than Jamaica.

Meanwhile, Norma McNeil, principal of Pembroke Hall Primary School in St Andrew, did not know that Jamaica led the pupil-teacher race in the Caribbean at the primary level. But, she was not surprised.

size not important factor

However, McNeil does not think that the sheer size of a class is the most important factor in the teaching and learning process as was evidenced by the results of the Grade 4 Literacy Test.

The senior educator pointed to schools with large classes that achieved high levels of mastery and schools with relative small numbers that did not do well.

"There is a change from the argument that large schools give poor performances so I think it is not solely about class size. There are other factors," she reasoned.

To underscore her point, McNeil highlighted a school that had seven children enrolled in grade four but none of them attained mastery as revealed by the recently published results. Pembroke Hall Primary has a ratio of roughly 30: 1 and it attained 88 per cent mastery on the 2011 sitting of the Grade 4 Literacy test.

In June 2011, a total of 56,126 students from public, private and special schools sat the test.

More than 71 per cent of the 56,126 students who sat the examination attained mastery, up from 67 per cent last year and 70 per cent in 2009. Of that number, 19.6 per cent gained almost mastery while nine per cent were in the non-mastery category.

For public schools, 69 per cent attained mastery, an increase compared to the 64.5 per cent recorded last year and the 67.3 per cent noted in 2009.

Private schools gained 93 per cent mastery, six per cent almost mastery and one per cent in the non-mastery category.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com