Education system is Fundamentally flawed

Leslie Riley, Contributor

One of the conclusions that may be reasonably drawn from the theory of multiple intelligence is that the way we measure learning outcomes in the education system may be fundamentally flawed. This is because every child's learning style is different, and the evolving scholarship is now suggesting that even boys may learn differently from girls.

The notion of what is wrong with the education system, and the underperformance among students across schools, appears to relate more to our lack of appreciation that examinations, especially in written format, may not even be appropriate for the individual learner who sits them. Examinations represent a one-size-fits-all activity in the current scheme of things and may be at the heart of the so-called failure of the education system.

There is a stratified school system in Jamaica which is mainly sustained by the GSAT matrix. Students are placed in schools by these reference tests and are measured at relatively fixed intervals by CSEC, another reference test, with an expectation that by grade 11 the preponderance of our students should pass these examinations.

The strengths and weaknesses of schools are determined mainly by students' performance, even though the existing theoretical assumptions which underpin the principles of teaching and learning, and education policies, are not necessarily correct.

Policy shift

It is very interesting that Minister of Education Andrew Holness has seen it fit to be insisting on certified literacy at grade four as a condition for transition between primary and secondary school and for students to sit GSAT, and by extension, GNAT. This shift in policy, which comes with a cost and with the corollary - the implementation of the ASTEP, tacitly acknowledges a systemic flaw in the delivery of secondary education in Jamaica over the years.

This year, the policy shift will see more than 6,000 students placed in ASTEP schools. These are students who would have ended up in secondary schools, even though they were illiterate and hardly likely to have the aptitude do well in CSEC. Yet prior to the shift in policy, all schools would be expected to churn out a high level of passes in CSEC exams to be seen as performing schools on the same plane with 'traditional' high schools, which are beneficiaries of a sanitised and relatively homogenous cohort of students who are literate to begin with.

Impracticable expectations

There is a lot of hypocritical, disingenuous and unscientific expectations relating to education practices in Jamaica. There is a Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning, and there is the concept of Credit for Life Learning being used in many North American universities to select and place candidates in various education programmes based on learning experiences gathered in life, yet there is the tendency discredit lifelong learners as of an inferior ilk.

My attempt to draw attention to persons who are educated by lifelong learning experiences in my letter on Wednesday, August 24 was no attempt to discredit students who are high achievers in the CSEC, as was obliquely implied in the editorial on Thursday, August 25, and the Letter of the Day on Friday, August 26. I was merely underscoring the point that many of the problem-solvers in our society are Credit for Life learners who did not pass CSEC subjects. Also, many high achievers in CSEC are not able to transfer learning but may be intelligent mainly in passing examinations.

Leslie Riley is principal of Marcus Garvey Technical High. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and johnnylegger@yahoo.com.