Peter Espeut | Emancipation from inequality

I take note of The Gleaner editorial of Tuesday, August 8, titled ‘Campion or Glenmuir?’ advocating for a change in the standard to be used to determine the relative quality of our high schools. Agreeing with the recommendations of the 2021 Patterson Commission, the editorial would rank more highly a successful remedial school which transforms low primary performers into medium high school performers, and more lowly a school which takes in high primary performers and nurtures them to become high performers at the secondary level.

The editorial says, “As the Patterson Commission put it: ‘If a high school gets mainly students from disadvantaged homes and poor-performing primary schools but ends up with only 40 per cent of them passing their CSEC exams, it may well be a better performer than a school that gets very advantaged and well-prepared students that end up with a pass rate of 75 per cent in the CSEC and CAPE exams’.”

This statement may well be true, for if you take in “very advantaged and well-prepared students” and all you can manage is a “pass rate of 75 per cent in the CSEC and CAPE exams” then this may indicate a failing school.

But the headline of the editorial is ‘Campion or Glenmuir?’, and neither of these excellent high schools fits the profiles presented in the above quote.

Not every high school could take high performers in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) assessments – and here I mean 95-98 per cent – and five years later have 95-98 per cent of them passing five or more CSEC subjects by Grade 11. To maintain top quality over time is excellence indeed!

We need remedial (high) schools because government-run primary schools are generally low performing. And I could never agree that remedial schools should be ranked higher than schools of excellence which take high performers and develop and maintain that high performance. These are two different types of high schools requiring different types of teachers and different academic programmes. And they should be ranked differently.

APPLES AND ORANGES

To try to place both types of school in the same ranking is to compare apples and oranges. To try to rank remedial schools and schools of excellence together is to be in denial of the inequalities inherent in Jamaica’s education system at the primary level. And it will perpetuate that inequality.

Inequality is woven into the fabric of Jamaica’s education system, because Jamaican society is unequal by design, and is maintained as such by whichever political party is in power.

At first, access to the best high schools (run by churches and trusts) was by ability to pay, and with Jamaica’s high levels of poverty, only the children of better-off parents went to the best high schools. Then later, when entrance to the best high schools was based on high marks in filtering examinations (whether called “common entrance”, GSAT or PEP) there was hardly any change: attendance at the better private preparatory (prep) schools (usually run by churches, trusts, and middle class matrons) provided better preparation for these filtering examinations than government primary schools; and again, the children of better-off parents went to the best prep schools, and therefore to the best high schools.

And those who paid big money to send their children to private prep schools, are asked to pay nothing at high school! The wealthy who used to pay big bucks for top-quality high-schooling for their children now benefit from “free education”. The more things (appear to) change, the more they (in reality) remain the same.

It should be obvious that as long as the majority of primary school graduates are semiliterate and fear mathematics, the majority of high schools have to be remedial, or have a heavy remedial component. Only when the majority of primary children get high marks at PEP will the majority of high schools be able to become schools of excellence, taking in top primary performers and turning out high achievers at CSEC and CAPE.

REDUCE INEQUALITY

And it should also be obvious that if the Government wants to reduce inequality (and – dare I say – increase prosperity) they must improve the quality of government primary schools. If (free) government schools offer the same high-quality education as (fee-paying) private prep schools, then private schools will become rare. It can be done! Look at St Richard’s Primary and Jesse Ripoll Primary!

But does the Government want to reduce inequality? That is the question!

And it does not seem to matter which colour party occupies Jamaica House.

We Jamaicans are not fools. Why should I support the green or the orange if neither can deliver top-quality education to my children? Why should my children not be able to go to the same school as the children of my employer? Or should we not take “Out of many, one people” too seriously?

As a clergyman I minister in the most deprived communities in the inner city, and in the past have ministered in deep rural Jamaica. The young people I encounter are just as bright and talented as any I have met anywhere; yet they are forced to go to substandard primary schools which do not unlock their innate potential. Too many of them – especially the boys – reach high school age needing remedial education. The church can only do so much.

Improving public education will require a big refocus on how we spend our education budget. If we can’t afford to subsidise both primary and tertiary education at the same time, which will we choose? Which is more important?

If every Jamaican child gets a good secondary education, this will refashion Jamaica, for we may have to import labour to cut cane and weed bananas; and maybe the middle class will have to wash and iron their own clothes, and trim their own hedges. Is that what we are afraid of?

Let us not preoccupy ourselves with how to rank remedial schools so they will look better. Let us get on with the task of delivering quality primary education. Let us not wait for Jamaica 70 to emancipate ourselves and our children.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com