Say no to surprise GSAT testing methods

Andrena McMayo, Guest Columnist

On March 20, 2014 the Jamaica Observer ran an article titled 'Several Changes to GSAT in 2015'. The article quoted the Minister of Education, Ronald Thwaites as saying that come 2015, "the science and the social studies papers are going to have less questions, and the body of information that your children will have to cover is going to be less."

On that same day, all across the island, educators and students alike were bemoaning the social studies exam. They said it was unlike any of the previous exams they've seen, a number of topics were not covered and questions were more analytical than fact-based. Let's be honest minister, is this mere coincidence or did the ministry, in fact, introduce a new testing methodology this year - 2014 - way ahead of any changes to the curriculum, formal communication to teachers and students, teacher training and supporting text books?

WHY PUNISH THE CHILDREN?

Why are we punishing our children with a type of exam testing that they were not prepared for when they did exactly what the curriculum had forced them to do, which is swallow as much as possible to spit it all out. Do you understand what was involved in preparing for an exam based on a curriculum spanning anything from rivers, plains and mountains in tropical Jamaica all the way to the customs and climate of polar Siberia, to be tested on maybe 20-40 per cent of this knowledge with complete omissions in most cases, and 'tricks' in the others?

There are simply not enough hours, given the extent of the existing curriculum, to discuss the role of CARICOM, so much as to discuss what the acronym stands for. It's such a shame that we act as though our children were complicit in the poor policymaking process that led to the GSAT and, therefore, we must rub salt in their wounds by saying to them as the minister has said to us, "Memory is the lowest form of intelligence". We, the general populace, were always aware that memorisation is not learning. But we had no choice, so we drilled our children as this was the hand we were dealt.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED

Structurally, nothing has changed. Teachers are the same, teachers' colleges are the same, resources are the same (or even less) and, perhaps more than anything else, high-school spaces are the same. Let me paint a picture. The children with the resources, the tools, the parental support and the exposure will benefit even greater from this new testing methodology. Analytical thinking is not created in a vacuum and surely we shall see an even greater shift to exactly those who we are trying to shift from. If we continue with this piecemeal approach, mark my words. The Johnson survey, which said preps are on top, is but the tip of the iceberg. The playing field will be even more bumpy with troughs as low as the Liguanea Plains and peaks as high as the Blue Mountains.

In 2010, I wrote an article about the Jamaican education system making us slaves to examinations. I expressed my dissatisfaction with an education system so focused on reproduction and regurgitation and less on innovation and creativity. Let's not break our children's spirits by using surprise testing methods, while still forcing them to study from the mammoth curriculum.

Improve our system, help our children on a path that will allow them and Jamaica to be more competitive players in this technological and ever-changing world. We share this vision. But, please, do not hurt our children or break their spirits in the process. They deserve better. Let us think it through from start to end and implement the changes in a cohesive and concerted way so everyone may benefit.

Andrena McMayo is a banker. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com