Why revamp GSAT?

I have listened to recent comments made by key officials in the education ministry with regards to revamping the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in the near future. I think this would be a retrograde step and one that would stifle the growth of our students at this level of their development.

While I will concede that there is some amount of stress surrounding this examination, I strongly believe that this stress is brought on by a number of factors other than the difficulty of the examinations.

Too often in Jamaica, our people fail to plan ahead of time and leave too much to be done at the last minute. Parents continue to ignore the value of paying close attention to the progress of their children from as early as the kindergarten or infant stage, through to grades one, and on to the other grade levels.

We sometimes hear parents putting forward lame excuses for their not being able to track their children's progress in the lower grades, but when they reach grade six, the highest-ranking high schools across the island are selected when they are registering for the exams. This is where false expectations cause a build-up of unnecessary pressure on the children. Oftentimes, this causes the children to falter and fold under the pressure on examination days.

Excellent curriculum

The GSAT is designed to assess the Revised Primary Curriculum, and I believe it is an excellent curriculum for children at this age. If utilised properly, it opens up the minds of children and encourages the growth of critical thinking skills.

The unfortunate thing, however, is that many teachers refuse to adopt the integrated approach put forward by the curriculum guide and seek to drill students for the test that they think will come in the next sitting. So instead of facilitating the development of critical thinking skills, they assemble past exam papers and drill the life out of these young children.

The issue of limitation of quality high-school spaces at the grade seven level of the system is cause for concern. This, in itself, creates more stress on parents, teachers and students than the average mind could ever imagine.

I believe that more resources should be put into creating more quality spaces at the grade seven level. Maybe, building a few more elite single-sex schools would alleviate the problem.

I cannot say categorically what is the correlation between the introduction of GSAT in 1999 and the improvement in the CXC passes five years after and continuing on to the 2010 results, but I feel that it could have had enough positive impact that even some of our seasoned educators are squealing that the CXC exams are too easy so that too many students are now getting too many passes at grades one and two.

Perfect launching pad

The GSAT is, indeed, an excellent exam which should be allowed to continue to run its course. We should address all other relevant issues before even harbouring the thought of revamping it. It is an examination which provides the perfect launching pad for our young minds before enter secondary-level education. Young children should learn all they can from as early as they can if they are to do well in the future and confront the real-world issues when they grow older.

My advice to all concerned is to take the stress out of GSAT by providing more quality spaces; planning and beginning preparation from as early as kindergarten, and examining seriously how we teach the Revised Primary Curriculum.

Owen Speid is an educator. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and speidowen@yahoo.com.