Programme Manager for Human Resource Development CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Morella Joseph, is calling on Dominican teachers, the Ministry of Education and society, to consider a few changes in an attempt to curb the issue of high student failure at the CXC Examinations.
Addressing teachers at a consultation on Monday, July 29, 2013, Joseph said that although students who excel at these examinations are celebrated every year they are in the minority.
“I am not sure whether there has been any marked improvement in the results of the CXC Examinations. Something is not working and we need to find out what it is. We talk a lot about those children who do well, the gifted ones who excel but they are in the minority. The majority of our students do not do well. Nobody pays any attention to them,” she said.
She added that an analysis to discover the specific reason why the majority of students do not do as well has not been done. Joseph pointed out that these students are the ones who typically end up in trouble with the law and remain unproductive.
“We have yet to do an analysis to find out why it is that these children do not succeed,” she noted. We need to look at this and find a way to correct it because if you have to do a serious analysis as to why they have failed and you follow them after they have graduated it will lead you to your prisons, mad houses, and discover that these are the ones who give trouble and are on the streets selling drugs,so when we talk about crisis and when we talk about changes taking place in society, who brings about these changes and what do we do about them?”
Joseph also made an appeal to Dominican teachers to strive to be the best teachers not only in the Caribbean but also in the world. She told the teachers that change is inevitable and that they should avoid resisting change.
“People say that it may upset the status quo. We want to ensure that Dominican teachers are the best not only in the Caribbean but also in the world and to do it we have to be part of a change process and you are supposed to be the change agent,” she sated.
Joseph concluded that in order to improve the quality of education, one must improve the quality of teaching. She said that there is a need to review teacher training since times have changed and so has the calibre of students being taught.
“The students we taught 25 years ago are different from those we have in our classrooms now. We also look at the teacher education program that prepares teachers for the classroom and we realize that the programme has not changed. Therefore, this programme works with teachers training them for the classroom, working with students who are street wise and have more knowledge about other things, and the question remains are we prepared to cope with what the children bring into the classroom,” she said.
this is what happens wen teachers take interest in only one set of children like me who were preference was offered in my school and people like me end up grinding for a cause and not for applause
In an age where technology is taking over and children know more about the world than they did before, i believe it is crucial to revisit the teacher training programme as to make these teachers more readily able to cope with our students. Look the world is changing and you can’t expect to teach children on 2013 like you did in 1990. It’s like sending a smoke signal in an age where everyone uses cellular phones.
Unless teachers make the commitment to teach for success of the students and that of the profession this problem will not end. In schools we have teachers calling kids stupid, we have teachers expressing that whether kids learn or not they getting paid, and insulting kids in the classroom and feels great when there is high failure. Cause the teacher approach is them versus us. Then the CXC results will not improved. There are lots of teachers students intimate relationships, and prinicpals do nothing about it. Some schools are run like family homes with husband and wife or mother and daughter large and in charge. Teachers are bribes with gifts from the haves, while the have nots struggle to make it. The school system needs urgent attention and since education is a national matter the Ministry of education needs to step into those schools. Especially the non governmental ones.
Frankly speaking as a teacher, I will make no excuses for a certain % of teachers who are not doing as much as they could. Secondly, I think that the people in the higher bracket of the ministry of education are not listening enough to the teachers who are in direct contact with the students. Thirdly, I believe that time has moved far ahead of the modern world in many areas in education in DA.
I think people should refrain from saying that teachers are in it for the money. Teachers are the worst paid workers worldwide much more for a poor country like DA. Why am I not seeing any rich teachers? Why can’t they afford cars,especially the more experienced ones? I don’t even know any teacher who retires comfortably enough to take a world cruise, unless they had another source of income. Need I say more?
Our children of today are very distracted. I mean ‘very’ distracted. Computers and all the info it provides, cell phones,Tablet just to name a few. Let us just try to do our best as they will be the leaders of tomorrow. My hats off to those who are working tirelessly to teach our distracted children.
when i was 11 years old i was in second form at the grammar school. i was 3 and 4 years younger than the other boys in the class.at year end ,my position was 26 out of 56.my father gave me 26 strokes and mr archer applauded him.at 17 i was employed by the govt. with csc catab in hand. a job that i could have done at age 10 in roseau boys school.talk to your children,dont beat them.
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Good move.
Some children learn at an early stage where as others at a later stage. Right now we have an influx of all elementary into the High Schools.
From the time the bigger boys killed the JSP program and brought in The Universal Secondary Education, that’s when the dollar died.
Dr. Joseph ask any old time teacher and they will put you right on Q.
I taught at a school in St Maarten and my oh my..nowadays the children come to school with nothing in their bags, they are all into bb and facebook,,,,they skip classes all the time like they are playing jump rope…. they want to fight and cuss the teachers…some teachers do their best but some children just dont care…children of today are not like children from yesterday.. Stop blaming the teachers cause some of these kids are too lazy and have no interest in their school work…we teach and its their duty to follow up and study but some of them never open their books so how do u expect them to pass CXC?
People expect the teachers to be miracle workers, they are not, and they too have lives outside the classroom, usually taken up with marking and lesson planning.
If your child comes home and all they do is watch tv what is that teaching them, read to your kids, give them a love of the written word, once they have that they will begin to learn by reading for themselves, the teacher can go back to being a channel for that knowledge.
If you don’t encourage your own children why leave it to someone else.
Our best brains do not go into teaching. It does not worth it, especially at the government schools with (U S E ),to go and take abuse from some of the so called bad boys. Even principals are afraid of them.
Some of the new teachers are deficient in speech and content, and only want to be paid.A few are very good and work hard. The problem runs deep, but nobody has the gumption to address it fearlessly.
The most rewarding profession is not teaching, its politics and law. The world over, senators, ministers, presidents and prime ministers live the most privileged lives.They eat their cake and still have it. Tout sa paka faire pwa chwit.
There is no recognition for excellence in Dominica today. The population have come to accept that the only way to make it,is by receiving GIFTS and FAVOURS. The school children are not motivated because they do not need CXC’s to go to the RED clinic.
Parents teach your children to care about themselves, they represent you, they respect their peers and most of all the teacher. The teacher is not the enemy, but the facilitator. So much news in all of the high schools where students are threatening teachers, bringing gang to face up with teachers. Those same parents turn around and complain how the teacher hate their children and they are there for the money. Too many children, yes children, want to tell teachers how to deal with their own children and they know darn well they were not prepared to be parents.
And about the money, teaching is a terrible sacrifice; take a good look at the teachers who taught you, they wait for that meagre pension month end, live from hand to mouth and those they taught are enjoying the fruits of the country; if there are any. When was the last time a minister was asked to give his pound of flesh for the country?
Parents buy you kids books and stop showering them with material things to make up for the time you don’t spend monitoring and working with them.
When was a survey done to see how many kids are living with their grand parents? People stop running around like hotboys, take care of your kids, they need you until they shapeh mal mashweh. If every family earnestly do their part then surely grades will improve. If the ministers are stearing the country towards economic growth, the teachers who really don’t want to be there will leave for some other job and those who love teaching will remain with the blessing, love and satisfaction of caring parents. A silly question, when was the last time you sent a teacher a gwen pat fig or some groceries from your shop, or a pair of shoes? I guess you did not so they have to buy that too at the end of the month.
teachers try their best sometimes, but the distraction in society is tremendous, i kno it sounds like pie in the sky but we adults need to put effort, triple k band can do so much to motivate and help kids through music, their lyrics: open like book, bowdelle and all kind of crap, they stay on fb, watch porn more than studying thats a fact…how we going to redirect their attention, i dont kno how that is possible, the problem is bigger than all of us…
So True!!
Teachers need to engage children more in the classroom. The students are bored from learning from books. The children are bright but do not want to write notes. they prefer interaction, hands on and discussions rather dictation.
From the time our children go through the gates the teachers tell them what to do, how to write. I mean allow the children to explore and work with a story not give them the story and ask them to correct this or that. Come on, in the science books there are so many experiments but not enough time to do them because so much work has to be covered. I think the syllabus needs to be reviewed bring in computers at school and teach students on the new level. The old time wa is not producing results.
Who tell you that students don’t do these things. Continue to talk.
I went to school like everybody else and in most cases the teachers did not have a first degree but they were respected. The were not fabulous teachers; chalk and talk but we learned. How much chores to do but we made time for homework. Now children have teachers with tout sot kaytay degree, all type of activities which are ” student centred” in class, have maid at home, internet and yo pli sot pase lachay.
Perhaps if teachers were given more attractive incentives they would perform better. Teachers are underpaid and overstressed then told they are not good enough. Though arguably teaching is more of a vocation than a job, that doesn’t mean that teachers should not be taken care of.
Seriously, the average teacher makes approximately the same salary as a cashier at Astaphans. Perhaps the government should take a leaf from the book of the Polish who provide top notch training along with a competitive environment for learning. That, coupled with the norm of a $100,000 per annum salary ensures a steadily progressive learning environment.
When those teachers take home papers to correct, they know bloody well that it is worth it – they not only get the satisfaction of seeing their students learn and progress, they also get the satisfaction of possessing purchasing power after paying their bills.
Why is it a wrong idea, I just think that the primary school teacher and parents are the key to making it work. It is at the children young age that they need to get motivated by parents and teachers to learn reading and writing skills.
teachers don’t care about children all they care about is the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ when i went to school the teacher would try all they can with you right now little children that teaching children there are very few concern teachers some have conversations that they should not have with your students and respect is a mutual thing so we need cameras in the schools so this big question will be answered for both student and teachers
Shut the hell up if you have nothing to say. Get lost. You think teachers are animals? Raise you child well, and you will have less garbage to spew pertaining to teachers. Your hypocrite. Is people like you that have Dominica like that.
Don’t use the fault of one teacher to generalize on all teachers.
It is not rocket science. Ask any teacher in the high school the reason for this. I do hope the teachers who were in attendance were able to speak on our behalf in that regard.
Two solutions, one, parents need to make their children accountable and only reward them when they excel. When they bring average to below average results give them a shake down, take away their gadgets, eg. cellphone, tv, etc. Number two, teachers need to be retrained to TEACH. Just giving projects which end up being done by the parents IS NOT TEACHING. Giving homework and not checking to see if what you taught is being understood and retained IS NOT TEACHING. Coming to the classroom with no work prepared IS NOT TEACHING. Providing inadequate responses to your students questions, IS NOT TEACHING. Teachers work with your student to realize improvement and excellence in learning. Don’t just do it for the salary or for just HAVING A JOB. Do it because you have been blessed with one of the most rewarding professions in the world, maybe not financially particulary in Dominica, but to be able to witness the product of your work, when you students excel in life and make you proud.
Don’t just do it for the salary?
What are you talking about?
Teachers getting salary? To add insult to injury, they are so blind and ‘stupid’ they accepted 0% and 1% as an increase in salary, while parliamentarians had almost 60% increase a few years ago.
THE TEACHERS THEMSELVES ARE THEIR WORST ENEMIES.
U. S. E The “Bad boys” are more interested in fighting the teachers, the students who make who make a concerted effort to learn do very well.
UNIVERSAL EDUCATION wrong idea
I hope she was actually talking to the primary and pre-school teachers because really that is where the failure rate starts and that is where the focus on getting right must be.
Simple too many young unqualified teachers….
They even refuse to take correction. Plus we have weak principals, who just stay in their offices and do not care anything.
You cannot have children entering high school, not being able to read and write, not knowing their tables, not knowing how to add, subtract, divide, etc,and then to have them pass CXC especially Maths after five years. IMPOSSIBLE!
Universal Secondary Education have us like that. To add insult to injury, the very ones who cannot do the above, are the ones who want to play bad boy. PAPA BAT!
100% agree, that USE is more of a hindrance than a help, and it’s not fair to the students who are more advanced and did well. There needs to be more hands on training for the students who don’t learn as easily