EDITORIAL - In praise of the 2014 Rhodes Scholar

The Vauxhall High School community must be extremely proud of their former head boy, Timar Fitz-Jackson, who was recently announced as the 2014 Rhodes Scholar. His achievement should serve to inspire all non-traditional high schools which have been struggling to shake the stigma attached to these institutions.

Teachers in nearly 40 non-traditional schools across the island have often complained that they get the lowest-performing students of GSAT candidates, and while they are expected to turn them around in five years, they are not given the requisite resources to do that good job effectively.

If it is believed that education is the vehicle to take a child on the journey of self-actualisation, the resources must be found to improve the offerings at many of these schools. Mr Fitz-Jackson is proof that it can be done.

This is why initiatives like the centres of excellence, currently supported by the Mutual Building Societies Foundation, should be commended for seeking to reverse the poor performances in some targeted non-traditional high schools. It should be replicated in all the non-traditional high schools.

What is most exciting about the triumph of the 24-year-old actuarial analyst is that he will enter the Rhodes Scholarship programme at the prestigious Oxford University to undertake studies in mathematical and computational finance.

The news comes in a week when the education ministry has announced new strategies to improve the teaching of mathematics in Jamaica. Hopefully, the new measures will include a review of the current curriculum. Excellence in mathematics has eluded scores of Jamaican students. And even though the weakness is recognised and often debated, the problem has persisted.

Reverse negative images

Perhaps it is our failure to master this most important subject that has accounted for the country's consistently poor economic performance over these many years.

So there is a clear task for educators to reshape mathematics education and create an excitement about the subject so that students may become eager to participate in concepts that are applicable to daily living. There has to be a concerted effort to reverse the negative images of mathematics as boring and hard by helping students to develop core mathematical skills in a creative environment.

History will show that pre-calculators, avid pupils of, say, the 1960s, were competent in numeracy and adept at computing numbers in their heads. It means they were doing something right in classrooms back then. While there seems to be no magical formula to the challenges that we face in education, it is always useful to look elsewhere for ideas and inspiration. Should we be looking back? Are there methods being successfully pursued by other countries that we could adopt?

The Rhodes Scholarship is intended to provide transformational opportunities for exceptional individuals and Jamaica is fortunate to have many such Oxford alumni. Mr Fitz-Jackson has already said he hopes to "apply the knowledge to help and develop Jamaica's financial sector".

We hope he will also become a passionate advocate for mathematics education on his return to Jamaica.

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