Dear Editor,
As a high school teacher, I believe that it is wrong to measure schools by CXC results alone. There are many factors that affect a student's preformance at school and in exams. The schools in the top 20 may have facilities that are not available in other schools. These top schools may also have parental support that is lacking elsewhere.
Support includes parents who pay school fees, attend PTA meetings, interact with the subject teachers, and supervise their children. It goes also to when weakness are detected, parents in top schools may respond by sending their children to evening and Saturday classes. These children are often properly fed and/or have stable family lives.
Unfortunately, there are schools where students come from struggling single-parent homes, do not attend school regularly, don't have enough to eat, cannot purchase books, and are not properly supervised, especially after school.
I think we are too caught with passing exams and do not look at the whole picture. We should be more concerned about moving a child from point A to full potential. What about a child with talent, how do we address this? What is in place to help the child balance a talent of football, cricket or track & field with academics? Should a child who is interested in hairdressing or dressmaking receive this type of training and not be considered successful when he or she passes the exams?
We need to stop thinking of the skilled person as dunces, because they are not tallied in CXC passes. They are just students who chose an area based on their interests. Please think on these things.
Peat Brown
St Catherine
brown_peat@yahoo.com
Schools more than CXC results
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As a high school teacher, I believe that it is wrong to measure schools by CXC results alone. There are many factors that affect a student's preformance at school and in exams. The schools in the top 20 may have facilities that are not available in other schools. These top schools may also have parental support that is lacking elsewhere.
Support includes parents who pay school fees, attend PTA meetings, interact with the subject teachers, and supervise their children. It goes also to when weakness are detected, parents in top schools may respond by sending their children to evening and Saturday classes. These children are often properly fed and/or have stable family lives.
Unfortunately, there are schools where students come from struggling single-parent homes, do not attend school regularly, don't have enough to eat, cannot purchase books, and are not properly supervised, especially after school.
I think we are too caught with passing exams and do not look at the whole picture. We should be more concerned about moving a child from point A to full potential. What about a child with talent, how do we address this? What is in place to help the child balance a talent of football, cricket or track & field with academics? Should a child who is interested in hairdressing or dressmaking receive this type of training and not be considered successful when he or she passes the exams?
We need to stop thinking of the skilled person as dunces, because they are not tallied in CXC passes. They are just students who chose an area based on their interests. Please think on these things.
Peat Brown
St Catherine
brown_peat@yahoo.com
Schools more than CXC results
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