School system gets low grade from senior official
Published:Monday | July 9, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
A senior education official has painted a picture of a dismal education system that affords little hope for achieving the lofty goal of making Jamaica the ideal place to live, work, raise a family, and do business by 2030 unless drastic measures are put in place to correct the situation.
Less than half of the students at the early childhood level, those preparing to enter primary school, are ready in terms of motor skills, their ability to respond to various kinds of instruction, and attention span. In addition, less than half of grade four students at primary school level have mastered numeracy, with a little more having mastered literacy. The average grade in the public system is 68 per cent.
Making this disclosure on Saturday, Grace McLean, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, admitted that just over half the students who sit the GSAT (Grade Six Achievement Test) are ready for secondary level education.
Delivering the keynote address at the official opening of the newest Sangster's book store in Portmore Pines, St Catherine, McLean had even more bad news.
"At the CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) level - where we now expect that our students would be ready to take on various opportunities as they move into tertiary education or the world of work - we have a cohort of 50,000 students who leave the secondary level on a yearly basis," McLean said. "From that cohort, we have only 30,000 of those students who are recommended by the principals and administrators of those schools to do the CSEC examination."
She added: "The other 20,000 are leaving the secondary level without even having the opportunity to sit this exam - without any form of qualification. Of the 30,000 who would have sat, you have less than half of this number who actually receive acceptable grades of 1-3 at the CXC level. And so this further compounds the problem because what it means now is that we are sending out these young people who join the group - the cadre of young people that are classified as youth at risk - who are out there just grasping for opportunities to do something to make their lives better."
Recruiting 200 teachers
McLean said in moving to address the situation, the ministry was in the process of recruiting 200 teachers for placement in basic and infant schools across Jamaica in time for the start of the next school term in September. This project is estimated to cost $120 million in the first year, and though the money has not yet been identified, McLean insists that the necessary input will have to be made in order to reverse the literacy fallout.
Dr Norman Marshall, managing director of Sangster's Book Stores, told the audience that the decision to open a second store in Portmore had been influenced by the desire to cater to the municipality which has the largest tertiary education population in the country.