Urgent need for a review of the education system

While the public awaits a report on the progress of the reopening of schools, there needs to be another look on the Sixth Form Pathways Programme (SFPP). It is still unclear to some teachers and parents just how this will work and it will also be good to know how it coincides with Professor Orlando Patterson’s report on the reform of the education system.

Upside-down, cockeyed education move

12 Dec 2021

SINCE FAYVAL Williams’ November 30 report to Parliament of her plan to reopen 383 more primary schools, providing an additional 164,000-plus students the opportunity to return to face-to-face classes, the education ministry hasn’t told the public how the project is going.

We hope that things are moving along swimmingly. But if the first phase of the reopening, involving 376 schools and 50,000 students, is anything to go by, then we expect that there will be substantial hiccups, exacerbated by unnecessary distractions. Some of the ministry’s officials are likely to be allocating time to untangling the project to extend schooling by two years, the so-called Sixth Form Pathways Programme (SFPP). That time would be better spent on efforts to make up for the learning loss by Jamaica’s children since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is no small matter. When the pandemic struck, the Jamaican authorities were forced to close nearly 1,000 public primary and secondary schools, with a combined enrolment of more than 420,000 students, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Attempts were made to compensate with virtual classes. It is, however, estimated that more than a third of students never logged on because of limited or no access to the Internet or to the devices with which to connect. In fact, during the first school year of the pandemic, the education ministry said schools had no contact with up to 120,000 students, or approximately 29 per cent of the entire enrolment.

STARK SITUATION

The situation has been expressed more starkly by UNESCO, the UN’s children organisation, and its Jamaican non-government collaborators. During the first 19 months of the pandemic, they reported recently, Jamaican students lost a combined 1.3 billion hours of faceto-face time with their teachers. The consequences of this began to tell in lower test scores in this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP), used to determine the readiness of grade six students for secondary education. This decline happened in a context where up to 20 per cent of students entering high school were already in need of remedial support. There was also a downtick in the results in some of the key subjects, including maths and English, in the exams taken by school leavers at the secondary level.

In other words, Jamaica’s education system has a lot of catching up to do. Which is why this newspaper not only welcomes the move to reopen schools but hopes for its acceleration in a safe and responsible manner. In this regard, and taking into account the economic and social circumstances of many of Jamaica’s parents, it can’t merely be that the education ministry instructs principals to open school doors and leaves it at that. Any such directive should be accompanied by a robust programme of community engagement and support to get children back into classrooms.

Indeed, in early November, when 376 primary schools were opened to 50,000 students, in the scheme’s pilot, attendance in the first week was 66 per cent. In the second week, it was up to 80 per cent, which, obviously, is progress. Nonetheless, that meant that during those first two weeks, 10,000 students didn’t show up for classes.

There have not been any further attendance data since Minister Williams’ report. But should that trend be the same with this move to accommodate the remaining 77 per cent of primary school students back into their classrooms, an additional 33,000 students will be absent during the early phase.

At the secondary level, there should also be an urgency to bring the number of students vaccinated against COVID-19 to the 65 per cent of 206,000 (a handful of schools have already met the target), which the Government established as the benchmark for full reopening. In this situation, the education ministry cannot afford distractions and diversions, which is what the ill-timed, and seemingly badly thoughtout and too-little-discussed SFPP represents.

ADDITIONAL YEAR

Jamaica has long talked about keeping its children in school for an additional year or two to help offset the education system’s many deficits. This newspaper supports the broad principles of the SFPP, which, in the additional final two years of schooling, is intended to offer students three options based on their performance and grades. They may proceed on a traditional academic track, opt for a technically oriented education programme, or acquire other skills in preparation for work in the general service sector.

But while students may have to continue their education at other institutions, including tertiary ones, they will remain enrolled in their original schools, which will be responsible for tracking their performance. It is from the schools that they will officially graduate after seven years of ‘secondary’ education.

Head teachers have complained that there was little discussion with them about the plan. Most, until recently, were ignorant about how the system would work. The conclusion, generally, is that it is unwieldy and likely to be impossible to manage.

Jamaica’s education ministry is notorious for periodically launching initiatives which, in short order, collapse under the weight of their folly. This has been especially so in recent years. Many principals and parents believe that the same will happen to the SFPP, unless it is rigorously debated and recast.

The problem is that given the crisis in education caused by COVID-19, Jamaica can’t afford the time and effort on what many people, including in the teaching profession, regard as a bureaucrat’s frolic. Minister Williams should instead focus on fixing the problem of the learning loss, including, if necessary, keeping children an additional year or more in existing grades, to catch up on what they have missed.

Further, it is surprising, and of little logic, that the SFPP was launched at the same time that the Government received Professor Orlando Patterson’s report on the reform of the education system to make it relevant for the 21st century. The report should be open for public discussion before committing to new education initiatives. What has happened is an upside-down, cockeyed way to go about things.

 

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