Fabricating a society

It is widely believed that not all Jamaican schools at the secondary level are equal. Every year when the time for the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) - formerly called the Common Entrance Examination (CEE) - comes around, there is much agony over which school students will be placed in. Placement in what is called a traditional high school brings joy and exultant jubilation; news of placement in other high schools, most of which were formerly known as new secondary schools or comprehensive high schools, does not get the same reaction. Countenances may be glum, and words like 'failure' are often evoked.

The feeling is that the quality of education offered at traditional high schools is higher, and therefore one's life chances are enhanced by attending one. And consequently, being placed at a rebaptised high school is a life sentence to lower-class life. Is this differential more perception than reality, or is there some substance to these feelings?

One school of thought is that the inequality is perpetuated by the Ministry of Education itself, which places high achievers in GSAT in traditional high schools (and some would even say, the highest achievers are 'ghettoised' in a certain few of those). When after five years students from those schools excel at the CXC examinations, this is more a reflection, they would say, of the high quality of the raw material they received, rather than the high quality of the teaching offered. One could cha-racterise it as the con-verse of the computer adage, 'garbage in, gar-bage out'.

In this context, the fact that the rebaptised high schools perform at a lower level in the CXC examinations would not be surprising; in fact, if it were not so, that would be surprising.

In the other school of thought, the quality of education offered at traditional high schools is objectively better than in the former new secondary and comprehensive high schools. Most of the time, they would say, the transition to being called a 'high school' was simply a name change, coming with no upgrade of school plant, staff or other teaching facilities (as if just calling it a 'high school' would make it better). The computer, language and science laboratories in traditional high schools are better (often the rebaptised high schools have only integrated science labora-tories).

Almost all the traditional high schools were founded by churches or trusts, which have an independent commitment to quality and high standards to which they hold the administration; the rebaptised high schools were all founded by the government of the day, and their school boards are mostly appointed on the recommendation of local politicians, which has its own implications for quality and standards which are usually driven more by the school administration itself.

Whichever theory you might subscribe to, the result is the same: at the secondary level, there is great inequality between types of schools. And this inequality is not accidental, but is the result of active government policy which keeps it that way from one generation to the next.

Taking the wrong road

I will never forget that first World Bank education loan after Independence. In 1962, there were 41 traditional high schools, six technical high schools, and eight senior schools (today, we would call them secondary schools). The vast majority of Jamaican children at the secondary level were in the 672 elementary or all-age schools. Something clearly had to be done.

One option was to open up the education system by building more traditional high schools, to allow more poor Jamaican children to get an excellent education and so to improve themselves. In this option the need for a CEE or GSAT would be reduced, since there would be an adequate number of quality places at the secondary level.

Another option was to expand the number of senior schools (basically creating junior secondary and secondary schools, inferior in quality to traditional high schools). Since they were intended to be of a lower standard, the expansion of this type of school would make the CEE-GSAT essential, since ambitious young people would obviously prefer to go to the traditional high schools.

It is clear which option the government of the day chose, and history shows that the differential has been maintained by successive governments. This is why we can say that inequality has been woven into the fabric of Jamaican society.

One is left to wonder where Jamaica might be today if our politicians had taken the first option, and invested in the development of our people.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist, and a Roman Catholic deacon. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.