The Editor, Sir:

An article in The Gleaner on June 11, titled 'More students head to schools of their choice', made reference to a table with the national averages for the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

It would seem that the 2009 aggregate percentage was only a 1.2 per cent improvement over 2008's scores. Further, 66 per cent of GSAT candidates "were placed in schools of their preference" - a mere three per cent increase over last year. Were these the intended targets of the Ministry of Education for both? If not, what was the gap? I would be quite interested in a deeper analysis of the reasons for these gaps, as well as the matrix used to formulate placement. Placing 97 per cent of students by computer and the rest manually is not a matrix.

Intrinsic talents

What if we used the GSAT to determine the intrinsic talents of our students for critical thinking, leadership, creativity, innovation? What if our placement matrix would give us a better insight into the required education and vocational formation of our students, such as whether a student has a leaning towards technical skills, academia, visual and performing arts or service? My ideas on the composition of these matrices are for another article.

These 2009 national averages for the subjects examined are woefully mediocre. I have learnt that the accommodation and praise of any mediocrity only lead to greater enabling and entrenchment of that mediocrity.

One of the ways this entrenchment has demonstrated itself is in the students' reactions, quoted in the article, to express how they felt about their secondary school placement consequent on the GSAT results: "elated", "this is a dream come true", "stunned", "surprised and happy because nobody expected me to go to Campion".

Culture of mediocrity

Now, one wonders, if a student has chosen Campion as his/her "choice/dream" school, why would she be "surprised" when this dream choice materialises?

Every time we allow our children to embrace this culture of mediocrity, they become a part of a dream belonging to someone else.

The fact is, the adults (including the ministry of education officials) must be the dreamers or our children will be a part of somebody else's dream.

We have a moral obligation to these students who are in the incubation stage of the Vision 2030 that we have created for this nation, and who will shape the morals and culture of Jamaica, land we love! It will take deliberate intentional focus on what we want to dream for our children to achieve this vision.

I am, etc.,

A.M. TINGLE

tingle.annette@gmail.com

Kingston 8