Ronald Thwaites | We are setting up our children to fail

The exam questions for some 7th graders struggling with literacy and mathematics, were posed in standard English. Most of these students have difficulty with sound and letter identification despite two years of infant school and five years of primary education. They have not been consistently exposed to phonics. Of course each has six or eight text and work books in a backpack, courtesy of us taxpayers or struggling parents. They can’t read them though.

The math exam asked them to “subtract” X from Y and to work out the “percentage” of Y in relation to X. Simple, you say. Except that while they can call those words, they do not understand their meaning. So they get the answer wrong.

But ask the same students to “tek weh dis from dat” or “ how much of dis mek up dat” and you find that the mathematical concepts are, after all, understood. This is just a small example of how we set up our children to fail. We assume things about them that are not true.

Reducing the Pathway Three (sanitised synonym for illiterate) curriculum from ten to six subjects is one baby step forward. Same with the announced introduction of a few hours of reading in the primary grades. The problem of juvenile illiteracy however requires far more fundamental changes. Absolutely nothing else is going to work unless Jamaican children are able to read, compute and respect others and themselves by age 8 or 9.

MISLEADING OURSELVES

For a start we have to stop fooling ourselves by believing misleading statistics. Some years ago a minister of education was assured that 85 per cent of Grade 4 students were proficient in literacy. This simply could not have been true given what we are finding among at least a half of the Grade 7 cohort. The statistic made “Minister look good” but it did not represent functional reality then or now.

Last week we were told that only three per cent of students from Grade 4 to 6 are at the “developing” stage (the lowest rating, charitably expressed) in math – a dramatic drop from 26 per cent in that category in 2023. One of three things could cause this: a miracle, delusion, or lowering the test standard to a level of meaninglessness.

It is a moral crime to fiddle the figures when it comes to people’s lives. Face reality. There is one literacy specialist in a large education zone covering scores of underperforming schools. Most class teachers are not trained or disposed to deal with the pathologies they face.

MISMATCH OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Check the outcomes of the plethora of advertisements for teachers in the newspapers at this time of year. Most of them are for language and mathematics specialists who don’t exist. At one primary school with about a thousand students, they received 70 applications for the 11 posts vacated by retirement, long leave and migration. Trouble is that most of them are this year’s graduates with no prior experience. Filling temporary posts is doubly difficult.

The nation is not giving enough attention to solving the teacher quality and shortage crisis. But we are spending almost $8 billion to afford leave over and beyond normal school holidays.

REBALANCING

The teacher establishment in all schools needs to be rebalanced to match student needs. The rigidity of permanent employment denies the system the flexibility which is needed to prevent automatic promotion and inappropriate curriculum.

Retraining and upskilling can no longer be options for a few workshops during vacation time.

Government is now conceding indefinite postponement of the Jamaica Teaching Council law with its mandatory provisions for continuing professional development. This is a serious blow to education transformation.

LOW PRODUCTIVITY

The teachers union which wants to control the profession is failing to confront the critical issue of teacher productivity. With 70 per cent of the very large education budget spent on salaries, there must be an interrogation of outcomes in relation to investment. Job security for teachers cannot be at the expense of student failure.

There is one school where a conscientious chairman troubled by poor results has observed and recorded the regular late-coming of staff who, predictably, have reacted with vitriol to what they consider tyrannical discipline. At another place where there are routinely more than 10 casual staff absentees daily, beyond the generous provisions of the Code, there has been near rebellion when pay was deducted. Meanwhile children roam around unsupervised.

Given the shortage of teachers and the political clout of the union, there will be no change until the nation recognizes the needs to thoroughly revamp the Education Code of 1980. The Patterson Report did not sufficiently address the issue of teacher inflexibility and unaccountability which is an important element in obtaining good results.

COMPROMISED GOVERNMENT

Since giving themselves massive salary increases without any related increases in effort, responsibility or accountability, the Executive of the State has no moral standing to ask teachers, or any public servant for that matter, to accept zero increase this year, a four year wage settlement which will reduce their purchasing power, while agreeing to the serious changes needed in their terms and conditions of employment to guarantee increased productivity and better student outcomes.

SEPTEMBER MORNING?

These prevailing circumstances are set up to make sure that easily half of our children will continue to fail. School placements have been completed, teachers are off and parents are scrambling to afford back to school. For all the frenzied pre-election announcements, nothing will change for September morning. That is unforgivable.

Give thanks that we do not live in the deadly maelstrom of Haiti or Gaza. Given our relative peace and many blessings, it is entirely within our wit and resources to reform our education offerings and cease disappointing ourselves.

POSTSCRIPT

It’s not only in the field of education that we set up ourselves for failure. Road and traffic conditions are increasingly chaotic further compromising life and productivity. As crashes and fatalities increase we think we are correcting the crisis by resorting to coercion and legal sanctions- just as we do with crime. But what less carnage and confusion do we expect when there is no rigorous system of technical and attitudinal driver training and retraining and while we continue to sell driving permits to irresponsible persons?

Once again, we are architects of our own misfortune.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com