Implement a more organised programme for low achievers

I would like to comment on your editorial in Wednesday September 29, 2010 issue. During the 1980s the Ministry of Education ran a programme during the August holidays, utilising students from the University of Guyana to tutor failing high school students for a period of six weeks. Before each programme, the specific needs of each student are identified by his/her subject teachers, and sent to the Ministry, which then organised the University students in groups to develop strategies to correct these deficiencies. This programme ran for several years at centres throughout the country, and was considered very cost effective, because the university students were doing it as part of their National Service commitment.
I served as a co-ordinator for this programme for the first few years and I thought it was a very successful programme in helping to raise the academic standard of the students involved.
The call by the Minister of Education for University Students to devote a few hours a week to tutor high school students, is a good one, but it relies wholly on the altruistic motive of the tutor-volunteers. The Ministry should attempt to implement a more organised programme along the lines of that which existed during my tenure at the Ministry.
I agree whole-heartedly with the minister that to expect students of diverse economic, social, and parental backgrounds to perform at the same level of competency is unrealistic. This problem is not only endemic in the West Indies and Guyana, but also very wide spread in the developed countries as well. The problem is no one is willing to adopt creative ways to solve it-all they do is scapegoat the teachers.

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