Meeting at NCERD…
EDUCATION Minister Shaik Baksh and other senior Ministry officials met with headteachers and school managers countrywide yesterday, after he said Mathematics, as well as English Language, to an extent, is of major concern.
“We had 34 per cent passes at the last CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate) exams. We need to move this up significantly,” he told the gathering in the auditorium of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kingston, Georgetown.
Discussing desired overall advancement in secondary education, Mr. Baksh said strategies must be implemented within the current academic year, not five or even three years from now.
The one-day session put the focus on particular areas, also including the Grade Nine Assessment, remediation in Grades Seven to Ten, the six-year secondary programme, the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP), the Performance Enhancement Programme (PEP), primary tops improvement and transition, resource materials availability, promotion of science education and parents’ conferences.
The more recently introduced Matriculation Enhancement Programme was the subject of discussion, as well. Under it, the Ministry is offering free classes in English Language and Mathematics for students who would like to rewrite the CSEC exams in January 2011.
Baksh called for specific targets to be met by school managers and heads, among them:
* stepping up the performance in CSEC Mathematics;
* sustaining the performance in English Language at CSEC, which moved from 50 to 59 per cent;
* the need for schools to see themselves as part of the Ministry and the entire education process and not separate;
* a paradigm shift, the adoption of a new mindset where headteachers and school managers are more accountable, in the interest of moving away from what has been historically a hierarchical structure;
* partnerships to remedy the problems at the primary level, which go over to  the secondary once the transition from schools is made;
* the need to be vigilant and help students stay in school, because teachers are the ones who know those at risk of dropping out and
* more emphasis on the weak areas, such as Mathematics, when timetabling curriculum subjects.

RESOURCES

He recognised that the provision of resources is a must and promised to have copies of CSEC Mathematics and English Language educational DVDs available for each student by the end of October and those for Science later in the academic year.
“We need to take a holistic approach to what we do. Secondary schools, not withstanding the criticisms, have improved in the last three years,” Baksh admitted.
However, while acknowledging that there are challenges he emphasised that they are the reason they met to address them, one of the main ones being that moves made at top levels are not translated as they should to the classroom level.
Baksh said several training sessions have been conducted and the children in the classroom are not benefiting as they should.
He especially cited the Education Management Programme and said evaluations by a Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) volunteer established that, although hundreds of school managers are trained, the application is yet to be seen in several schools.
Baksh said the survey also found that proper planning was not being done and no new initiatives towards better results were not being undertaken.
“This is a focused workshop to zero in on the problems,” he stated.
Baksh said secondary education is on the move but, to address the challenges which persist, headteachers and school managers in authority must partner with the Ministry to plan and prepare in the effort to remedy the situation.
He said a contentious issue in the sector is that, in some schools, teachers are developing a culture where students are forced, in a subtle way, to take extra lessons.
Baksh said he is aware of the fact that some teachers are ‘moonlighting’ and students have to take extra lessons to be able to sit examinations.
He queried why schools like Queen’s College (QC), which receive the cream of the crop teachers need to have their students taking extra lessons.
According to him, between 60 and 70 per cent of students in the system take extra lessons.
“We must turn this around. If the school system operates as it should, there will be no need for extra lessons. Headteachers need to be more vigilant to know what your teachers are doing,” Baksh demanded.
He said another problem is the number of subjects students are allowed to write at exams, in some cases as many as 15.
Baksh set the limit at eight subjects but added a proviso that allows candidates, who attain more than 75 per cent passes at the National Grade Nine Assessment (NGSA), to sit more than that number.

DISCRETION

But, here again, he called for teachers’ to exercise discretion and not place too much of a burden on candidates.
Baksh acknowledged that parents and some teachers would push for students to write many subjects but said doing that has its consequences.
He explained that writing the exams is more than just that and students must be able to apply themselves afterwards.
Baksh said secondary education, worldwide, is gaining increasing emphasis and, in Guyana, access to it is there but the challenge is to improve the quality and ensure that  children stay and complete schooling, as the hope of social transformation is dependent on it.
He said keeping the lines of communication open is quintessential and that consultations, as it has done in the past, fuel changes.
In that context, Baksh exhorted headteachers and school managers to actively engage parents and said they will be required to submit reports, to the Central Ministry, each term. .
He said evaluation is increasingly becoming more and more part of the culture at the Ministry and all stakeholders must adapt.
Baksh indicated that, come next year, the performances of schools will be published, offering public credit to those schools which did well and giving schools that did not a push to do better.