Commentary
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – St. KITTS AND NEVIS have much to be proud of in viewing the overall results of the recently held CXC examinations, but we must dig deeper to see what is reflected in these results and whether the yardsticks used are sufficient to analyse the real effectiveness of our education system.
The Minister of Education, Hon. Nigel Carty, in presenting his report on the performance of students in the examinations of 2012 stated that the report “provides a mechanism for gauging the effectiveness and efficiency of our education system.”
However, we must not be goaded into thinking that the results provided and the yardsticks used indicate that we have an efficient and effective education system for we are using the results of the performance of one cohort or age group without taking an overview of the entire system.
In an analysis of the education system, we need to know what percentage of that age cohort that entered First form in 2007 reached to fifth form in 2012. It used to be about 50% in previous years; has it improved?
What is happening to those students who did not arrive in 5th form in 2012? Are they still in the system? They will be just as important to the manpower needs of the Federation hence we need to be as concerned about them as we are of those who have taken the academic pathway to success.
CXC has instituted a lower form of examination to ensure that a student can leave school with something to show for it and to inform would-be employers of the level of skills s/he possesses. We need to hear more of the results of these exams as well, as these students are equally important to the well-being of our society.
In his report, the Minister of Education based the performance level of schools on the number of students entered for the examinations, the number of subjects offered, the number of subjects returning 100% passes, the number of subjects having a pass rate of over 50%.
Unfortunately these statistics do not really indicate how many students would gain entry to higher education with 5 or more subjects or how many gained Maths and English thereby making them ready for the job market or scholarship.
This is how CXC analysed the performance of students at CSEC (Secondary examinations) when they reported on the 2009 exams:
Students with 0 passes 28.14%
Students with 1 pass 24.65%
Students with 2 passes 12.62%
Students with 3 passes 7.36%
Students with 4 passes 5.88%
Students with 5 or more passes 21.36%
It is ironic that although some schools or islands may have produced brilliant results, note that the numbers of students gaining no passes whatever is greater than the number of students with 5 or more passes.
It is statistics like these which lead us to know what we are dealing with. It is no use thumping our chests and saying that 10 subject areas produced 100% passes if the number of students in each subject area could vary from 5 to 35. In another subject area that received 90% passes of 35 students, this is not seen as worthy of note.
Now, any assessment of our education system must use performance in Maths and English as its most important bench mark. These are the core subjects in education ever since we were dealing with the three r’s.
The whole education system must be built around these two subjects or we are building our system “on the sand”, around a hollow core. Hence a dip in these subjects must cause a great deal of concern.
Mathematics represents the basis of our logical thinking. It is not just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It involves the basis of problem solving – “since, then, therefore” – and enables us to understand the comparative world of percentages, decimal points, organisation and balance.
It is not ‘hard’ but teachers who have never understood it or realized the value of it will pass on even less than they know to their students.
English represents the basis of our communication and comprehension. It enables us to understand and pass on ideas and concepts. Through reading, we become aware of the vast knowledge the planet has in store and it is from this vast store of knowledge, applied to our experience, that we become creative and innovative.
Our country rests on the foundation of our education system. Human resource is now viewed as human capital and student achievement now represents the knowledge capital of a country.
A basic education is now regarded as the ‘necessary skills that must be acquired to enable one to bring value to the economy of one’s country, hence basic education must include not only literacy and numeracy skills but also problem solving skills as well as social skills such as teamwork (World Bank Education Sector Strategy).
In analysing and restructuring our education systems we need to be brutally honest, clinical and focussed.
Dr. Didacus Jules, Registrar of CXC, speaks of the need to rethink and redefine education in the Caribbean. He admits that ‘the education system is no longer working’ and that ‘tinkering with the system no longer works; we need a new vehicle of human empowerment and social transformation.’
In restructuring the system, we must ask how our education system is to serve the needs of our nation. Producing a student with 11 subjects, 7 distinctions and no pass in Mathematics among them is not an achievement about which a country should boast, therefore, let us not sugar-coat our results unless we are sure they are doing for us what we intended them to do.
Knowledge about any subject can be found with the click of a mouse on Google; it no longer comes from the mouth or notes of a teacher. It is the application of knowledge on which we must now focus.
Next time around, let us use more meaningful benchmarks and apply our new knowledge of technology by inserting bar graphs, pie charts and graphs in the national report.
In this way we can communicate easily the comparisons, improvements and failings and in this way know clearly where we ought to set about problem-solving to really make education ‘the new vehicle of human empowerment and social transformation’.
Lorna Callender is the former Head of the OECS Education Reform Unit; former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, St Kitts Nevis; former lecturer at CFB College and former Principal of Basseterre Junior High School.
