THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WOULD like to commend Stephen Vasciannie on his balanced, tactful and well-re-searched article on the topic of the perceived gap between the traditional and newly upgraded high schools.
His article confirms my own observations as a retired high school teacher who recently assisted a young student outside of school hours, to prepare for CXC English at General level. This youngster had spent five years at a traditional high school but he was repeating the Grade Eleven year at a newly upgraded secondary school.
As I questioned him about the course he was following at the latter school, I became quite disturbed to discover the grave lack and omissions in the course work. Having had a different and more satisfactory experience at the traditional high school, the student himself was concerned, and told me of his efforts to find out from his current English teacher why certain key areas of the syllabus were still being neglected so close to the exams.
All this leads me to ask the following question: What measures has the Ministry of Education put in place so that teachers, especially inexperienced ones, get not only thorough, detailed training and upgrading, but close supervision over a period to ensure that their performance is adequate to their responsibility? Retired teachers who have proven their worth could, for example, lead regional seminars in order to give younger teachers the benefit of their experience and expertise.
I am, etc.,
RETIRED TEACHER
St. Ann
