CSEC underperformance creating STEM crisis for Jamaica
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WESTERN BUREAU:
Jamaica is facing a growing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education crisis as only 6,000 of the 30,000 students sitting Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations annually are achieving the qualifications needed to enter the country’s tertiary institutions.
Dr Kevin Brown, president of The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), said the limited number of students is creating intense recruitment competition among Jamaica’s universities and teachers’ colleges.
“We have a little crisis emerging,” said Brown, while addressing the launch of UTech’s third annual Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Summer Camp at the institution’s Western Campus last Wednesday. “We have a situation where 30,000 high schoolers take CSEC. Thirty thousand sounds like a big number; it is a big number, but only 6,000 get five passes with maths and English included.”
“Now here is the challenge: UWI wants some, UTech wants some, and CMU wants some. We are all fighting over the 6,000,” he stated, referencing The University of the West Indies and the Caribbean Maritime University.
Brown further noted that local tertiary institutions, including public universities, private universities and teachers’ colleges, largely require applicants to obtain five CSEC subjects inclusive of mathematics and English.
“The teachers' colleges want some because if you go on any of our websites, there are over 15 tertiary institutions in Jamaica. Many of them are teachers’ colleges, and we have public and private universities. They all said they want five CSEC maths and English,” he explained.
He added that the figures point to a weak educational pipeline that could threaten Jamaica’s development.
“UTech alone wants 3,000. That’s half the amount that’s qualified, so you have a pipeline issue,” he said.
Brown also noted that while another estimated 5,000 students may attain five CSEC subjects without passing either mathematics or English, the country is still left with a significant number of young people outside the formal tertiary education system.
“It means you have 24,000 [left]. Where do they go? Some might go to HEART, some might go find a job, but you now have a wide and large number of [youth] who are not in tertiary education. That’s a scary thought.”
Brown said that the strengthening Jamaica’s STEM pipeline is critical if the country hopes to build a modern, technology-driven economy.
“For Jamaica to become a STEM country, which is the ambition, it has to pivot towards Maths, not for you to count your money, but to ensure that we have students who are mathematicians who will then use maths as a foundation to become scientists, to become technologists, to become engineers,” he said.
According to Brown, mathematics remains central to most STEM careers.
“Engineering, and I’m from that field, is applied mathematics. Most chosen career paths in STEM are underpinned by mathematics,” he said.
Brown also expressed concern about the widening academic performance gap between boys and girls, noting that girls continue to outperform boys throughout the education system.
“When you look at the performance of girls across the education system, whether it is from basic school to primary schools, you look at the PEP results, the CSEC results, CAPE results, girls are outperforming boys at every level,” he said, in explaining that programmes such as the STEM Summer Camp are designed to engage students through hands-on learning and practical exposure to science and technology.
“The good thing about boys is that they like what we do here at the STEM camp, the hands-on education, the tinkering, and the ability to really see the mathematics in an applied environment,” he said. “A robot moving around is all about coordinates, and there’s a lot of maths behind it, but for a young boy or girl, the robot is bringing to life the STEM without teaching them the pure maths.”
Brown also made an appeal to corporate Jamaica to continue supporting the initiative, stressing that the programme is intended to strengthen the country’s future workforce and national development goals.
“You are not sponsoring a programme for UTech. You are sponsoring a programme for Jamaica. UTech is Jamaica’s national university, and you are giving us the funding and the support because you want to see Jamaican students – not UTech students, Jamaican students – do better and to allow this country to have that STEM pipeline. The wider ambition here is to make Jamaica better,” he said.