Edward Seaga
Edward Seaga
, Contributor
THE RESULTS of the Caribbean Examination council (CXC) exams taken last June are now available.
The figures show continuing deterioration in passes in English and no change in the poor results of the Mathematics exam.
Where math passes have remained constant at a low 36 per cent, English passes though higher, have fallen from 54 per cent to 48 per cent.(SEE TABLE I)
The results also show a continuing dismal performance in upgraded high schools. Here Math passes are 17 per cent, the same as last year, but passes in English have slipped from 34 per cent to 25 per cent over the past year. The results in both subjects are low. (SEE TABLE II)
As is to be expected, girls did better than boys in English, 51 per cent to 37 per cent, although boys did slightly better in Mathematics, 38 per cent to 35 per cent. (SEE TABLE III)
UNBELIEVABLY LOW LEVELS
These figures indicate passes of only those who sit the exams. If the percentages were taken of all eligible students in secondary schools in the age cohort, the figures would show unbelievably low levels particularly in upgraded high schools.
In the upgraded high schools, only roughly one third of the 20,438 students eligible to sit English Language take the exam and of this number nine per cent pass, that is, 91 per cent either do not sit the English exam or sit and fail!
In the case of Mathematics, only 27 per cent, or 5,556 of the 20,438 eligible students, sat the exam and 4.7 per cent passed.
By deduction, 95.3 per cent of all students in the eligible age group of some 20,438, which represents nearly half the number of those in this age group throughout the entire secondary education system, either failed or did not take the Math exam.
TURNING OUT ILLITERATES
Summarising, more than 90 per cent of students in nearly half of the entire secondary school age cohort eligible to sit English and Math in the CXC exams either fail to sit or fail the exam.
Indeed, 70 per cent or 14,000 of the 20,000 in the age cohort do not have even one pass in any subject at all!! And between 20 per cent and 30 per cent or 4,000 to 6,000 leave upgraded secondary schools as illiterates.
What then is the purpose of schooling a child at an upgraded secondary school for five years at a minimum cost of $500,000 if the result for 70 per cent is hardly any different from little or no schooling at all?
Under the present system we are turning out 4,000-6,000 more illiterates at the secondary level each year swelling the ranks of young people who will be totally frustrated as non-functioning members of the society.
Don't ask, therefore, where crime and teenage motherhood originate.
The solution to the problem lies in implementation of the resolution on education reforms introduced by me in Parliament last year and passed, with some amendments, by joint bi-partisan approval of Government and Opposition.
Chief among these reforms agreed was to increase the funding for education from the very low 10 per cent of budget to 11 per cent or by one per cent per annum for five years until the level of expenditure reaches the desired target of 15 per cent of budget.
This would require an increase in the upcoming budget of $2 billion to be spent on the areas agreed on in the resolution, over and above the intended expenditure.
This agreement includes, among other things, introduction of one hour additional time each day for supervised homework and, in the case of non-literates, one hour for literacy training. Conquer these two areas of deficiencies and exam grades will improve immediately.
NO CIRCUMVENTION
The Opposition will be examining the upcoming budget in great detail to ensure that the Government meets its expenditure commitment given to Parliament and the Minister fulfills or begins the reforms set out in the Resolution.
The Opposition will not accept any circumvention of the binding commitment of the joint Resolution passed last year in Parliament by any argument that a committee has now been established to review the education system and increased expenditure must await the report of the committee.
The education system has been reviewed exhaustively, inclusive of the World Bank study of the 1980s which produced the reform programmes now implemented for secondary education, known as the ROSE project, and the testing of primary school students to assess progress, NAP.
Any new study may or may not add somewhat to the fundamental reforms begun in the 1980s with the World Bank.
FINDING THE FUNDS
The Opposition will condemn any delay in the implementation of what we already have agreed is to be done in order to await yet another report as a device to delay the provision of additional funds for education.
Wherever the funds are to be found they must be found. This is the highest priority in the country.
The People's National Party overnment must put its money where its mouth is and stop living on a faded reputation as a party of education.
Edward Seaga is the Leader of the Opposition.
