Heather Robinson

All good students will tell you that the best way to prepare for the final examination is through steady and consistent work. It doesn't matter if it is for GSAT, CSEC, CAPE or first-year exams at university. It doesn't matter if it is the entrance examination to join the police force, the army or the fire brigade. It doesn't matter if it is an audition for a part in a play or a movie, or indeed if one wants to be in the finals for 'Rising Stars' or the festival of the performing arts. All require work and good effort to get thus far.

In this the final lap before the general election is held, much attention is being paid to the course work of the candidates and their political parties. Students will tell you that even at the CSEC and CAPE levels, course work forms part of the final grade. This course work takes the form of School Based Assessments (SBAs), and at the tertiary level projects and term papers are submitted for in some cases up to 75 per cent of the final grade. Students who do not hand in these papers for grading invariably find it difficult or sometimes impossible to get a passing grade, much more a good grade.

Assessment

The assessment done by an electorate of political candidates and parties in a general election is no different. Performance must be determined by what has been accomplished by those who offer themselves. Voters should be looking at some key indicators to determine how effectively the Government has performed.

These include the number of houses that have been built; the number of graduates from tertiary institutions; the level of success in CSEC and CAPE exams; the number of new schools built and how they have performed; the level of access to health care through public health institutions and programmes; improvements in the road network; the level of new investments by both local and foreign investors; reductions in the murder rate; increases in employment opportunities, and we could go on and on.

Voters should be looking to see if the Opposition has been preparing itself to govern, and if it has, has it done the following: engaged the country in believing that it can be trusted; demonstrated that it is capable of staying the course, and not 'flip-flopping' from one place to the next; that it can keep the high ground and not seek to compare persons here in Jamaica with Idi Amin of Uganda and Germany's Hitler. What if the Leader of the Opposition is compared with a chameleon, a little man dressed now, again in an emerald green suit who enjoys partaking in mischief?

Driving test

This person, who claims that he has difficulty talking about himself, has no difficulty in describing himself as "the driver", should remember that drivers first have to get a learner's licence and have to be age 17 and over, before they can actually do the test at the examination depot. To pass this test one is required to do a hill start, and if the car goes backwards while this is being done, the test ends there.

If you have therefore started the test by driving a green Vauxhall, one cannot be expected to do the reverse course in a blue Dancer (oops, Lancer) and the road test in the same green Vauxhall again. Examiners do not have the time, patience or tolerance for such switching acts. So if you begin the test for your general driver's licence in one type of vehicle or suit, ensure that you use the same vehicle through all stages of the examination course.

Staying the course is the key to success.