A cycle of self-fulfilling stupidity

R. Howard Thompson, Contributor

The results of the recent GSAT exams have now been published and the usual complaints are being voiced by parents whose children were not placed at their schools of first choice. The headline in The Gleaner of Saturday, June 19, 'GSAT outrage', summed it all up. A number of sensible comments have been made in letters to the press about the damage that is being done to our children by the idiotic and outmoded placement system, and I am glad to see that more people are beginning to see the folly of our ways.

What disturbs me is the extent to which teachers at the primary and prep-school levels are supportive of the present placement method. I am sick and tired of going to primary-school prize giving functions to hear principals brag about how many of their students have got in to traditional high schools. Placement should be done to facilitate the education of the child rather than to promote the status of any school.

I just heard of a case in Mandeville where a parent who lives there had one of a pair of identical twins placed at a brand-name school in Mandeville whereas the other one is to be sent all the way to Bellefield. So the system is making it more difficult for the weaker student to get an education by sending him or her a much greater distance to what is rightly or wrongly perceived to be an inferior school. The only thing I know of that one might use to reasonably label a school inferior is that it uses a shift system where the students get fewer contact hours with teachers. It would be far more logical to give stronger students fewer contact hours than weaker ones and send weaker ones to closer schools where they can be monitored and supervised more effectively by parents.

The only purpose that will be achieved by the way they are now being placed is a strengthening of the perception that one school is superior to the other. It is likely that five years from now when they both take the CSEC exams, the one attending the brand-name school will outperform the one at Bellefield and the teachers at each school will be held accountable for their results. This will be used, along with other results, to rank the brand-name school over Bellefield and the entire cycle of self-fulfilling stupidity will continue.

It was, however, pleasing to read in Monday's paper in the article 'Schools scramble - Door closes on kids', that there are some primary schools that are progressive enough to put the interests of all students ahead of prestige and pass rates. It read in part: "Other schools which are targeted by parents employ a feeder system to ensure fairness in the selection process. St Peter Claver Primary is one such institution to which basic schools and other early-childhood centres dispatch names of their six-year-old students." The pass rates at such schools is probably a much more realistic reflection of the quality of work done by the teachers.

Close to home

This is the approach that we need to take in placing students at the secondary level. The only fair way to place children in a school system funded by the taxpayer is to place them according to where they live. I know it cannot be done overnight and that it will be difficult, initially, to sell the idea to parents. But we need to start the process somewhere.

There are some very simple and inexpensive things that we can do to begin the process of change. We can begin next year by changing the way the GSAT scholarships are given. If we want to encourage a meritocracy, we should encourage it at every school. Beginning next year, I would suggest that a GSAT scholarship be given to the top boy and top girl entering every high school. Each school would, therefore, have a role model around whom a stream of excellence could be developed.

Stop sending children from rural Jamaica to schools in Kingston. In fact, stop sending them outside of the county in which they live. Develop a formula that lowers the cut-off point of schools for students who live within a certain distance. The present system develops a sort of academic-garrison mentality in some schools, which serves no useful purpose. The minister's approach of trying to increase the number of preferred schools is merely going to entrench the false perception that the performance difference is due to a difference in schools' quality. He needs to take on the top 'academic garrisons' and stop the exclusion of students purely on the basis of GSAT scores.

R Howard Thompson is an educator. Feedback may be sent to roianne_@hotmail.com or letters@gleanerjm.com.