Don't bar kids from exams

The widespread practice of barring students from sitting external examinations has gone on almost unnoticed for many years in schools across Jamaica. Many 'reasons' have been put forward by teachers and school administrators to try to rationalise this practice from as long as I can remember, but none is strong enough to convince the well-thinking Jamaicans that this is a wholesome practice. One untold reason is that most schools are indeed watching their averages in external examinations.

I firmly believe that one of the fundamental purposes of creating and maintaining schools in the modern era is to help students reach their true potential, rather than hurt students who are perhaps the most important link in the chain called education. My question then is: Who is helped when a child spends five years in an educational institution, and close to the end of this time, he is told he won't be allowed to sit the exams?

If teachers, school administrators, and ministry officials fail to take on this question, I will then ask: Who is hurt most by these actions? Answer the one with which you are more comfortable.

AT HIGH SCHOOL

While I am not in a position to speak definitively about how all schools come to their decisions about which children to exclude from taking the CSEC examinations, I can safely say that many high schools carry out the questionable practice of using their own internal 'mock examination' grades as the measuring stick. Among the difficulties I have with this practice are that:

1. The mock examinations are not set by experts and are sometimes arguably more difficult than the external examinations in the subject areas.

2. The mock exams used to determine the children's faith are held some seven to eight months before the external examinations. This is an awfully long time within which a previously average, or even below-average, student could put in some extraordinary work and come through in time to get a passing grade by the time he or she sits the examinations.

I think that the time has come when we, as educators, should persevere with our students throughout their school life. I see their exclusion from external examinations as a sign of giving up on them, maybe at the most critical time in their lives.

GSAT EXCLUSION

We are now seeing where there is a shift in policy which allows for the children who do not obtain 'mastery' in the Grade Four Literacy Test to be excluded from sitting the GSAT. And may I ask whose 'literacy' is Grade Four Literacy? Will this policy of exclusion cause more long-term hurt and pain than how much help that may be acquired by the students? At a time in our history when corporal punishment is outlawed in schools, I believe that asking 12-year-old children to forego their chance of sitting the GSAT, under whatever circumstance, could prove more devastating than most damage that can be caused by corporal punishment.

Have you ever thought about how these 'excluded' children feel as they go out in their schoolyard or community to play, considering that their friends and relatives know all about their academic weaknesses? Why not allow all students who complete the Revised Primary Curriculum to sit the GSAT, then provide for their needs after leaving primary school?

The construction of more special-needs schools is on the cards at this time. If this is done, students could be placed in these schools after they are allowed to sit the GSAT. This will allow them to be on a campus by themselves, so that they can receive specialised tuition, using the appropriate resources made available by the Government and corporate Jamaica, and without the threat of being teased and harassed by their colleagues.

I think that, universally, all students should be allowed to complete the prescribed curriculum at their age level, and all students who complete the prescribed curriculum should unequivocally be allowed to sit the corresponding examinations. Only this will mean giving all children a fair chance of succeeding in life.

Owen Speid is a school principal. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and speidowen@yahoo.com.