Fixing our broken primary schools

Wayne Campbell, Contributor

It is indeed welcome news that the Ministry of Education has decided to implement a national numeracy programme for the 2012-2013 academic year to address the continued dismal performance of our grade four primary-school pupils.

A lot has been said about the 2011 grade four numeracy results published by the Ministry of Education. For the learned among us, there were no surprises in the results. We all knew that the nation's children were struggling. I hope that the below-par performance will be a wake-up call to all stakeholders.

The data point out that our boys are clearly at risk, as they constitute the majority of the students in the non-mastery category. The school system operates on a gendered regime, and as such, societal expectations are different for both sexes. A starting premise is that when children go to school, they don't all emerges with the same outcomes. What accounts for this inequality?

Among the factors accounting for the inequality are the individual's endowment, and the structure of the school and the society.

A crime to be poor?

With regard to individual endowment, we must ask ourselves if one's socio-economic status impacts one's learning. Clearly, this is the situation, since we see that prep schools are doing much better than primary schools. We can, therefore, deduce that children who attend prep schools are from homes with a higher income level than children from primary schools.

A significant number of children who attend primary schools come from very poor homes, especially in the rural areas.

We also need to examine whether some of these students from our primary schools are medically fit to learn. By this I mean, are they seeing and hearing properly? Many learning challenges are caused by medical conditions.

Second, we need to examine the structure of the school. Our primary schools are not male-friendly. More than 60 per cent of primary-school teachers are females. as a result, a boy may never encounter a male teacher at the primary level, except for the principal.

This does not augur well for a boy in his formative years. More positive male role models are needed in the education system.

At teachers' colleges, we sensitise teachers-in-training about the needs and expectations of both boys and girls and restructure the curricula to cater to the needs of both sexes. We clearly need a gender-sensitive policy.

Radical change

The third factor of inequality in the education system is that of the structure of society. The gendered approach of socialisation gives boys less exposure to those tasks that would build self-discipline and time management, which are skills needed for educational attainment. Our fathers need to pay more attention to their children, especially their boys.

The Ministry of Education also needs to monitor more closely all schools. It cannot be that you have one education officer supervising 15-20 schools. We need to hold everyone accountable. However, in doing so, we must be fair and not give any one stakeholder 'basket to carry water'.

The Ministry of Education must also visit the pupil-teacher ratio at the primary level. Research and common sense tell us that the teacher is able to give more of himself to those entrusted in his care if the number is manageable. There are still primary schools in 2012 with more than 40 students in a class.

All primary schools should have mandatory after-school supervised homework centres. We can find creative ways and give some subsidy to encourage teachers to participate.

It appears that successive governments since Independence have been doing patchwork in terms of addressing the ills of the education system. What we need is a national vision to address the problems of the education system. More intervention and resources are clearly needed at the early-childhood level. If our students are given a solid start, they will excel.

Wayne Campbell is an educator and student of gender studies. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and waykam@yahoo.com.