The Editor, Sir:

The recent attention that has been placed on education has provoked me to ponder a few thoughts. First, it's always interesting to note that whenever these statistics are shown, as the ones revealed by The Gleaner's presentation of the recent Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate performances in mathematics and English, that no mention is made of pupils' performance in other areas of the school's curriculum.

While no one is debating the fact that mathe-matics and English language are the core subjects and that pupils' ability to do well in these areas will be significant to their development, it is also necessary in order for us to do a clear evaluation of pupils' performance that numbers be revealed for the other subject areas. Are we to conclude that they are failing across the board?

Playing catch-up

Also, when reading Mr Zacca's commentary, I remember when I used to think in a similar manner as he does now. That was before I started teaching. Since teaching in one of what we call our 'newly upgraded' high schools, I have found that many of the pupils come to grade seven without the necessary prerequisites. Therefore, they lack the foundation and many of them become frustrated as they have to spend most of their high school lives playing 'catch-up.'

few people have commented on the home and community realities of many pupils and how this affects learning.

We need to find the answers about parenting, resources and other drawbacks soon before we become a nation of dunces.

I am, etc.,

TENESHA GORDON

tennyluz@yahoo.com

Via Go-Jamaica