The results of this year’s secondary school examinations as reflected in the award of scholarships once again show up glaring deficiencies in T&T’s education system. Unfortunately, once again, analyses of the problems are being done without a template or timetable for implementation.
Distinctive trends have emerged: the superior performance of girls over boys as represented by the scholarships awarded, the almost complete domination by denominational schools over government schools and the fact that schools in south and central Trinidad continue to do far better than those in north Trinidad and along the East West Corridor.
Adding to the imbalance is the fact that students from middle and upper class homes are generally better placed to score high marks in the examinations because of the physical and human resources pumped into their education by their parents.
When higher quality management systems and more committed supervision by principals in denominational schools are added to the equation, it is clear that the domination of the annual scholarships list by those schools is not a mystery but an expected reality.
The challenge now facing education stakeholder is to counter these and other imbalances in the system. A possible starting point is with the curriculum and analysing its suitability for young males compared to their female counterparts. The solution might be in finding subject matter and teaching methods likely to hold the interest of boys.
However, this does not mean that boys inclined to the current academic agenda will be denied the opportunity of pursuing those subjects. The objective is to determine whether a differentiated curriculum and methods of teaching will offer more attractive options to male students.
Finding ways and means to bridge the gap between insufficient quality parenting, which causes many students to lag behind because they lack the love, quality direction and the kind of home guidance necessary, is another area for focus. Management, discipline, encouragement, nurturing of students and much more need to become standard practice in government schools, rather than an elusive objective. Tough love, as it is often called, is not impossible as a cultural requirement. After all, there are government schools which have achieved a measure of success.
Teachers who lack the physical capacity to bring such discipline and that new ethic of behaviour to schools or students must be fully supported by professionals with expertise in behavioural change. The Ministry of Education and society as a whole cannot shy away from the fact that some superintending muscle is urgently required in schools. If quality standards of behaviour can be achieved at the denominational schools, it can also be done in the government schools.
Young people are taking into the school system dysfunctional habits developed at wider societal levels. Professionals operating at all level of the education system have to focus intensely over the next five to ten years on eliminating the negative behaviours so frequently demonstrated in viral YouTube videos.
Another option may be to work with non government organisations and other service groups, such as faith-based and community organisations, to encourage positive behaviours and attitudes in young people and their parents. There is a widely held but still to be proven theory that teenagers who become parents before they develop an understanding of what is involved and how to handle that life-long responsibility may be a major cause of many of the problems in T&T’s education system. At the very least, this should be explored in the search for solutions so that all hindrances to learning are rooted out of the system.
It helps that Education Minister Anthony Garcia, with decades of experience as a teacher, trade unionist and school administrator under his belt, knows and understands the problems. However, he most take swift and decisive action now to deal with what ails T&T education system or face the prospect of being known mainly for an undistinguished tenure in office.
