Andrew Samuels reinforces a point during his workshop on programming.
-Ricardo Makyn photo
Paul Brett
, Gleaner Writer
SCORES OF teachers and students from a number of non-traditional high schools in the Corporate Area and St. Catherine are struggling with the Caribbean Examinations Council's (CXC) Information Technology Technical Proficiency syllabus.
The teachers do not understand certain aspects of IT programming, and so have difficulties teaching it to their students. Now both teachers and students are being forced to take private lessons to better understand the subject.
Worsened by lack of computers, insufficient access to training materials such as multi-media programmes, data projectors, text books and Internet installation, the situation has pushed the teachers to seek urgent help from outside the parameters of the Ministry of Education Youth and Culture (MOEYC).
"The fundamental problem has to do with lack of training and infrastructure in schools and the quality of professionals who are well versed in the area, and can teach the subject," said Andrew Samuels, teacher of IT at the Norman Manley High School and instructor at Wilmot's Academy at 27A Seaward Drive in St. Andrew.
"When you do find professionals who are trained in this area, their training did not expose them to methodology geared to address the different sub-groups of learners and so a lot of them fumble their way through the syllabus because they've got certain areas to cover and specific deadlines to meet during the school term."
The Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) IT Technical Proficiency Practical paper accounts for 50 per cent of the overall examination grade. The School-Based Assessment (SBA) project accounts for 25 per cent. The theory of IT accounts for another 25 per cent, eight to 10 per cent of which account for the marks in programming, in which students will need to excel.
At the private lessons 133 students and eight teachers sat in a classroom scenario and focused on Samuels' lecture in IT. There is a committed following of teachers at his private lessons. The high schools they come from include Bridgeport, Cumberland, Dunoon Technical, Greater Portmore, Kingston Technical, Norman Manley, St. Andrew Technical, St. Hugh's and Denham Town and others such as the Lister/Mair-Gilby School for the Deaf and Wilmot's Academy.
Teacher of IT at Denham Town High School, Antonio Daley, says the difficulty with the subject has a lot to do with students' lack of reasoning skills rather than the lack of proper infrastructure and training.
"Programming involves a lot of logical operations and skills in reasoning. Students lack the ability to reason out certain problems and mathematical operations. If they had been equipped with these skills the subject would have been less demanding," he said.
EARLY INTRODUCTION
He suggested that there should be an early introduction of IT in schools to make it more accessible across the general curricula to students and teachers from as early as second form. An earlier exposure, he added, would not only give students confidence but also more time getting the fundamentals of the subject right before pursuing it at the CSEC and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level.
However, Kerri-Ann Cooper, teacher of IT at Kingston Technical High School, said lack of training is her biggest hurdle.
"I wasn't really trained to teach information technology but I can help myself if there is a need. My biggest problem is trying to teach 'Pascal', 'C' and 'C++' which require a lot of brain-power. Even though I did a course in 1996, I am a bit out of touch because I have not been practising."
She said the workshop helps to reinforce new methodology in the delivery of programming and simple tips which students can use to make it easier to grasp.
The Caribbean Examinations Council in Barbados is aware of the problem among some IT teachers in Jamaica, Dr. Lucy Steward, registrar of the CXC told The Sunday Gleaner. She said the office was ready to give assistance to those who encounter difficulty teaching any area of the CSEC syllabus.
"We are in touch with ministries regionally who are aware of our policies in giving assistance and support. Where necessary we give assistance in cases where a country may need a resource person to offer training in areas of computer programming and in other challenging subject areas, as long as requests are made by the respective ministries. As far as we know, no one has contacted us from the Ministry of Education in Jamaica, neither have we initiated any assistance to amend the problems there."
BLAME
However, she was quick to point out that it is not fair for Jamaicans to put all the blame on the Ministry for the current problems in IT, as there were a number of principals and vice-principals who have developed training sessions in order to facilitate their IT staff.
Minister of Education, Maxine Henry-Wilson, in a written response to Sunday Gleaner questions, states that her Ministry works closely with CXC in facilitating training of teachers in both CSEC and CAPE. She said emphasis is placed on areas in which there are reported challenges and that already, several schools from across the island are making good use of the training.
"The Ministry ascertains training needs based on feedback from the annual Panel Inspection reports; Teacher Development Appraisal Programme; analysis of CXC results and requests for interventions made from time to time by principals of these schools and professional organisations such as the National Association of Teachers of English or the National Association of Teachers of Science."
She referred to an eight-week training programme in IT for teachers of inner-city schools, being delivered through the Caenwood Centre Lab, between 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. as one of several workshops from which teachers can benefit. In addition, HEART/NTA has made available to the Ministry, its institutions islandwide to facilitate training of teachers in IT with emphasis on challenging areas.
But Dorrete Campbell, communications director in the Ministry, acknowledged that there could be communications problem between principals and the Ministry about access to these workshops. She said the Ministry requested that principals submit the names of teachers who are having problems in certain subjects every year. However, several were tardy in their responses, making it difficult for the Ministry to fulfil training needs across the island's schools.
