Stigma - Parents fear labelling of slow students
Published:Friday | March 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gareth Davis, Gleaner Writer
PASSLEY GARDENS, Portland:
THERE ARE mixed reactions from parents whose children will not be allowed to sit the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) next week.
The Ministry of Education took the decision recently not to allow more than 6,000 primary school students who failed in four attempts to achieve mastery in the Grade Four Literacy Test (GFLT) to sit the GSAT.
Instead, these students will be placed in a new programme the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP), aimed at ensuring that children are given a second opportunity to become literate.
"What the Ministry of Education is doing is all well and good," said parent Maxine Dawkins. "But the difficulty that I am having is that those students including my child will be furnished with a different kind of uniform, and I believe that will create some level of stigma, as they will be labelled as dunce, and probably will be jeered by other students. I will be the first to admit that my child is slow, so I, therefore, endorse the initiative," she continued.
Uniform
Other parents including Addassa Morrison, and Vinette Wilson, shared similar concerns, although admitting that the change in uniform would pose a difficulty to students, who might be exposed to ridicule, jeers, and to some extent, rejection from other students.
The concerns were raised Tuesday afternoon at a special meeting organised by the Education Ministry at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education, to inform parents drawn from the parishes of St Mary, St Thomas, and Portland, about the new programme.
Meanwhile, Colin Blair, director of communications in the ministry, while unable to confirm whether the concerns raised by parents regarding the change in uniform would be reconsidered, said the concerns were valid. He noted that the ministry would be willing to examine the matter.
Under ASTEP, which will be implemented in September, students would be afforded the opportunity to upgrade their literacy level, which could still allow them to sit the GSAT next year.
Meanwhile, chief education officer in the ministry, Grace Mclean, urged parents to take a look at the programme, which she said would provide children an opportunity to improve their literacy level.
"Under the ASTEP, children will be given four opportunities to become fully literate," she said. "Each step of the way they will be assessed by trained specialists, who will determine whether some of them require further special attention,".