Ronald Thwaites | Don’t waste this crisis

She had turned up to teach last Monday. But next morning, the principal of the large primary school received the email that said, “Dear Sir, I received a call last evening and so will not be returning to school. Sorry for the short notice. I will send you a copy of my letter of resignation.”

This will be an often repeated experience for the next while. The recruiters from abroad have been visiting some local school compounds last week, too. They are not reticent. The Government is in denial. Telling us about recruiting replacements just out of training is waste talk. Filling the vacancies with green graduates may mitigate chaos, but will do little to significantly improve already-compromised teaching and learning.

All this is happening as school communities are trying their best to settle in, make financial ends meet, fill staff shortages, and come to grips with massive learning disparities among their pupils. Same time as, bankrupt of ideas and money, the highest government officials are calling them extortionate for insisting on contributions from those who can pay. But not a word as to where the essential resources for quality education, not to mention the added sixth-form burden, are to come from. Does the supremely well-educated minister really believe that $20,000 a year can pay for anything more than a keep-and-care grade 12 and 13? No wonder teachers migrate.

There are skilled persons in literacy and numeracy in all areas of business and state activity. If they were allowed one day release each week to fill instructional gaps in schools, there would be improvement. Put these volunteers under the supervision of the principals and heads of departments, who now have to be pinch-hitting.

PLACE STRATEGICALLY

Repurpose the entire cohort of education officers and place them back strategically in the classrooms from which they came. Forget about the paperwork and the incessant bulletins for the time being.

It is that serious. The worth and dignity of our children demand a radical response. Church members who have the heart for mentoring or the skill for teaching, need to find themselves assisting at some school. Wasting a child’s potential is to wound them and the society permanently.

The Parliament is spending its time planning anti-crime measures but is disregarding thorough the discussion of the recommendations of the Patterson Report on education transformation. Don’t they see the connection between schooling and social peace?

I know of schools which have been begging for help to attract back the nearly 40 per cent of their leaving class last year, as well as those this year who can’t take exams because they can’t read properly and who, frustrated, scarcely attend. Promises, but no effective response from the much-touted yard-visiting programme. Transportation subsidy for a relative few and PATH money can’t stretch, if even you can qualify.

School officials report that they are under pressure to spend inordinate time on paperwork, rather than on instruction. Principals need ‘backative’ to free themselves from this shackle.

Last week, I wrote about the high school where less than a quarter of the entering grade-seven students are reading anywhere near the appropriate grade level. Their situation is near normative – not exceptional at all. It begs the question, what is happening in many of our primary schools?

Try with me to identify literacy and numeracy coaches to place in the majority of schools which are enrolling underachieving pupils. The complement, never adequate, has been savaged by migration and other means of attrition. Sufficient of them do not exist. So what do the schools do? Frustrated by the levels of learning loss, unprepared for the level of remediation required, teachers resort to continuing with the National Standard Curriculum (not to mention the unaffordable book lists), even if only a fraction of the class is comprehending. The devastating results are stark for all to see and feel.

SLAPPED US IN THE FACE

The outcomes slapped us in the face once again last week. The external exam results were published and poor Mrs Williams was heard to celebrate the high proportion of students who passed ONE subject!

Minister, that is disgraceful. Creditable passes in five subjects, including mathematics, English, information technology and at least one practical discipline, should be the minimum for graduation, let alone favourable mention. How many met that standard, please? And why not?

We are not doing better. COVID-19 has dealt the education system a body blow which we continue to understate. The standards of several external tests are lower than they were 10 years ago. More than that, disaggregate the test results and we find the increasing number of ‘passes’ at grade three, which is truthfully scraping the bottom of acceptability. I have received numerous calls this week from students and parents begging to have their grade four and five results re- marked so they can claim a grade-three pass.

Parents, the investor class, the Cabinet, ought to be up in arms at this predicament, made worse by the attempts to make-believe it isn’t so. How can the Prime Minister herald a ‘digital society’ without competencies in digital craft?

Please don’t let us waste this crisis. Pointing out the deficiencies is not an attack on the Government or the Ministry officers. It is a cry for honesty and effective response. School leaders need help to do whatever is necessary to advance the children away from the particular situation of their school. Empower yourselves. School boards take charge. You are not branch offices of the ministry.

Most of our education system is teetering on weak foundations and inadequate superstructure. We have assumed that access to education would inexorably produce quality results. It doesn’t. Underachievement is everybody’s responsibility to remedy. The 2030 vision and ‘five in four’ are mirages at this point. Fixing education is essential to our survival as a humane, peaceful and productive society.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.