Goodbye, all-age schools

I HAVE heard that Minister of Education Andrew Holness intends to abolish all-age schools and junior high schools. Good riddance, I say!

In the bad old colonial days, when only the elite attended high (grammar) schools operated by the church or special trusts, the Government provided only an elementary education for Jamaicans, which terminated at the equivalent of grade nine in an all-age school or a junior high school. The examinations (London or Cambridge O' levels), which allowed social mobility into the civil service or the professions, were taken after grade 12, and quite intentionally, publicly provided education stopped short of that, to ensure that there was an ample supply of agricultural labour. Elementary school graduates trained in the basic 3-Rs (reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic) and manual skills, were expected to follow their ancestors and take their places in the cane fields, banana walks and coffee pieces, so that Jamaica's plantation economy could thrive.

After Independence, the Government of the new Jamaica decided to abolish elementary schools and to develop a primary-secondary system. The government borrowed money from the World Bank to build dozens of junior secondary (JuSec) schools (grades seven to 10). The plan was to convert all elementary schools into primary schools (the expression was to "chop the top off" the elementary or all-age schools), placing the higher grades into JuSec schools. In these latter schools, students would receive training in technical subjects to support the new industrialisation thrust. They would get an additional year of secondary school, but would still not be able to take London or Cambridge O' levels which allow social mobility. Independence did not bring an end to apartheid in Jamaican education; the Government planned to help our people come out of the cane piece, but move only as far as the factory floor.

Since then, the JuSec schools have morphed into new secondary schools and then have received two further name changes: into 'secondary schools' and then 'high schools'. In my experience (I was board chairman for one of these name-shifting schools), the name change meant little; we had the same plant, facilities and staff.

The truth is that the process of converting elementary schools into primary schools did not get very far. At Independence, Jamaica had 672 elementary schools; by 2001, we had 348 all-age schools and 89 primary and junior high schools - a total of 437 elementary-type schools. After 40 years of independence, the job was only 35 per cent done! Quite a poor record by successive Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and People's National Party (PNP) governments!

I was chairman for a deep-rural primary and junior high school for about a decade, and so I have personal experience with this dysfunctional type of school. The school works hard to teach the students to do well in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). And then their best students leave for high (grammar) schools, the second tier leave for high (secondary) schools, leaving behind in the new grade seven, the most dysfunctional students.

A remedial school

And to make up numbers, all the dysfunctional grade-six students from the surrounding primary schools are brought in. The Junior High Department in a primary and junior high school is nothing more than a remedial school, teaching the three Rs to slow learners or persons with disciplinary problems.

The announced decision to phase out all-age schools and junior high schools is welcome and long overdue. It should have happened right after independence. This foolishness about forming junior secondary schools and then rebaptising them as new secondary schools, secondary schools, and now high schools has held back our national development for 50 years. Worse as, in most cases, the name changes do not reflect any improvement in facilities or the quality of the teachers.

What is important now is to improve the quality education our schools deliver. There is no reason why any Jamaican child of whatever colour, whether from urban, rural or deep-rural addresses, should not be able to achieve their full potential, without being held back by policies which support the old plantation system.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.