Our secondary schools
As far as our secondary schools are concerned, we as a society, need to go way beyond just placing all our grade six students in high schools. This is a basic human right; however, it is definitely not good enough, in the information age of the twenty first century, to simply place all grade six students in secondary schools without putting the other infrastructural and super structural features in place to operationally produce high quality and excellence at all our secondary schools nationally and regionally ! We can most certainly do much better than that as a nation and Caribbean Region. The very future peace and socio-economic prosperity of all our nations rests on this very issue!!! We all therefore need to dialogue honestly at all levels on this central question !! Are our secondary schools in the region producing the desired results where it matters most; and if not, what should we do about it?
Firstly, the overwhelming evidence demonstrates that the model nations mentioned above have successfully implemented education reforms which ensure universal access without destroying the quality and level of academic achievement of their traditional secondary schools. The soundest evidence in educational policy clearly demonstrates that the most successful nations mentioned above have achieved universal access at all levels of education without sacrificing quality and excellence. This is the central issue which needs to be fully explored within the context of a national symposium.
It goes without saying, that every single child must be educated at the high school level and beyond to achieve one’s full potential; however, no school can possibly be all things to all students and at the same time focus on achieving excellence in all areas ! Again , the overwhelming research evidence in education policy and education psychology is clear, that some of our secondary schools should be left alone to focus on the teaching of students who have proven ,through the national exams, that they possess the required core competences in English, Math, Social Studies, and Natural Sciences. The effect of such a policy would be to drive competition and academic excellence both at home and in all our schools at all levels !!! This would make our primary school parents, students and teachers work much harder at home and at school !!! As a result, the whole system would benefit since we all would strive to achieve much higher standards all round !
Secondly, some of our secondary schools need to be streamed into academic and technical vocational sections with immediate effect ! We also need to develop specialized secondary schools focused only on skills training and remedial learning. In fact, it is my humble view that The various national Youth Skills Training Programs should form the core of this new type of secondary school. Indeed, this would ensure that the major learning gaps of our students would be concentrated on. As a result, these early learning and social development gaps in our students would be corrected within specialized secondary schools. At the moment, too many of our secondary school students who are the future leaders of our nation are allowed to leave/ drop out from secondary school or graduate with too many major learning gaps which serve to undermine their future academic ,technical and social development. This is a very serious threat to the future prosperity and stability of our regional economy and the peaceful development of our wider society .We should not be allowing students to repeat for one two, and three years within our traditional secondary schools before correcting their obvious learning gaps.
Allowing our secondary school students to repeat the same form for two years does major damage to their self esteem. We should instead create special schools or special technical vocational streams within our existing primary and secondary schools. This would allow all students to have an opportunity to do well within their areas of competence. At the same time , the school would be able to do corrective teaching.
Also, we need to come to a basic understanding and realize that, we fail students, we fail parents; indeed, we destroy schools; we frustrate teachers and principals, as a society; when our traditional secondary schools are asked to teach basic grade four reading and writing to high school students! This is the task of a specialized remedial skills based, technical vocational school program.
Further, when we fail to properly structure remediation in core areas of competence in Math, English , Social Studies, and Natural Science at our primary and secondary schools, this results in the undermining of quality, competence and excellence at the tertiary level of education and human resource development . Our boys are the ones most negatively affected by this crisis.
Finally, we need to examine, very carefully, how small nation states ,in the Caribbean and elsewhere , such as Barbados, Singapore, and Cuba have successfully transformed their education systems to achieve universal access, while at the same time increasing the quality, soundness , academic and technical excellence, and level of competition within their systems of education. This is a very noble agenda which we , in The Caribbean ,should pursue with a sense of great urgency and determination .
Also, we, as a society need to immediately implement a vigorous Program of Christian Spirituality, Physical Education, Sports, Cultural Education and Healthy Lifestyle Education throughout our entire education systems around the Caribbean Region as a matter of the highest priority, to arrest this wave of crime , violence and unhealthy and unsustainable lifestyles among our children, youth and adult population in Dominica , The Caribbean and the Americas !!!
Our forefathers and mothers have suffered hundreds of years of mental, physical, economic and social slavery, colonization, abuse and underdevelopment . We therefore need to put all our efforts regionally into reclaiming what our ancestors have lost in terms of education and human resource development and all the attendant benefits of socio-economic advancement that come with that. Let us all ,as one region, take time to look to nations such as Singapore, Cuba, Brunei, Canada, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, and China, and many others, which have successfully developed their education systems to meet the needs of their people for holistic development, as well as to build successful, peaceful and prosperous societies.
Aurelius Gordon is a Graduate Teacher at The North East Comprehensive School and a former Lecturer of Social Studies at The Faculty of Education of The Dominica State College.
We are offering an alternative to help bridge the gap” The Education Opportunity program .Visit us today at 3 Elliot Avenue. We Will work with your children at their pace.Who said that children must enter secondary school at 11. Registration is now open.
Great article as usual, Mr. Gordon.
Terimah kasih untuk semuah. (You should know who this is)
i call on mr Golberg to fix that problem now aor later will be too late
i know of a late learner who is now in the us with a masters degree in administration
sould she be put to learn to sew when considered a vocational student and not allowed to exercise her full potential what a grave mistake that would be
we must not think that late learners are not academically inclined and put them through the vocational setting we may be making a distructive mistake
i have always said that the system needs to be reviewed and allow the late learners to remain in the prmary school setting untill they are prepared for the secondary school. then the system can benefit all since all students do not learn at the same pace. i believe that a late learner sent to high school ahead of time can be made into a frustrated drop out where as if left behind could become the next prime minister.
WE do need to standardise our pre=school programs, so when our 5 year olds enter the primary first level they are on an equal footing. Too many pre-schools are just recreational drop offs for our youngsters. Government must intervene quickly and help our little ones. Don’t just focus on the high school- sometimes too late. Seize them from the first day of pre-schol. Identify who is dyslexic, who has parents who cannot read, who is mentally challenge and so on, We do not have to wait until they are too old to be bent. Good article Mr Gordon. Keep it simple and straightforward always. I liked this one. Sometimes, the other articles are too long and complex for the ordinary reader. Thank You.
WELL WRITTEN MR GORDON,CONTINUE TO ENLIGHTEN THE MASSES.
Well said, we need to have an educational system that works for us as a people. Each child is an individual with different learning styles, some are more academic some are more vocational, some are artistic, none is better or brighter just different strengths.
We must not follow the pattern where children graduate high school but are illiterate.
We must find a system to meet the special needs of each child, agriculture and vocational skills also need literacy and numeracy.
Mr Gordon was my Social Studies lecturer at the DSC faculty of education.As a teacher myself ,we are forced to teach students who are incapable of reading and some can’t even write appropriately at highschool.It is very true we are breeding a nation of underachievers and it was about time someone spoke about this issue .This is undermining our education system,when a college is forced to have a remedial program
My main disagreement is with the idea that we need a “Christian Spirituality” program. Students need to be taught about world religions, not be indoctrinated into a single religion. A good class will not only provide an overview of major and some minor world religions, however, but will also discuss agnosticism and atheism, as well, since these are intellectual positions related to religion. The point of such a class/classes is to educate children about the world at large, not turn them into theologians of one religion (they can choose to study that later, if they wish). What we lack in Dominica is, generally speaking, basic knowledge of world affairs and ideas, be they historical or contemporary, and it is this that perpetuates the narrow-mindedness certain Dominicans embody. To prevent our children from growing up the same, we have to teach them a wide range of things.
Mr Gordon is an intelligent man. I would like to commend his article as he was my past teacher, thus I have great respect for his presentation.
In his article he exerts to present a holistic way of dealing with the short comings of our education system. I have learnt some things and I believe that our authorities can build on many of these ideas. Additionally, I would like to support the article by inserting that our education system needs to target using our herbs, fruits and many other resources so that we can manufacture, trade and create employment. In other words, we need manufacturing industries for secondary and tertiary production that can reside along with our environment.
The only area I differ is that Mr Gordon mentioned about Christianity in the schools. I beg to differ from an Islamic perspective and as a student of Comparative Theology, European Christianity is very different from the original monotheistic message that Jesus peace be upon him taught. The Christianity and bible that is present now has undergone many changes. Firstly, where is the original language in which the messiah (p) spoke? Second, there are contradictions in the bible. Thirdly, we see many anthropomorphic mythology in the bible for e.g Jacob fought with God and He won, God said let me go let me go… or in Genesis 6:6 according to KJV God repented He made man. How can God repent? Isn’t that implying that God made a mistake? How can one teach an interpretation of Christianity that enslaved African people for 400 years? These dangers are reflected on the psyche of the African child who sees his god as a white man with blue eyes and blonde hair. Thus, this is where I humbly disagree with Mr Gordon.
Thank you
Dawoud Abdur-rahman Darroux.
before you found islam , what did you know? islam rubbish WHAT THE HELL IS ABDUR-RAHMAN,
Please Mr or Ms Anonymous before you attack ask a question.
Abdur-rahman means servant of the Most Merciful.
Mr Gordon, I want to commend you for taking a stand in favour of improving our educational system. I particularly like the idea of technical vocational schools or streams within traditional schools. That program was already initiated in Grand Bay, for example, where Home Economics, Wood Work, Electricity and Agriculture were taught, in addition to Integrated, English, Math and Social Studies. The mainstream did Biology, Physics, Chemistry, etc.
The Vo-TEC program needed funding for labs and equipment. Mr Herbert Sabaroach was a pioneer and very strong advocate of that program. But I want to strongly disagree with you that such program should be used for remedial teaching. That limits the program as an asylum for under-achievers.
The electricians, mechanics, builders and agricultural entrepreneurs of this century are not and should not be stigmatized as semi-illiterates. That does more damage to a student’s psyche and self-esteem. Mechanics need to use computer software and sophisticated equipments. Electricians and builders have to understand and interprete blue prints. Home Economics and Agriculture students need knowledge and skills to become savy entrepreneurs. They all need to be certified.
So remedial work must be done at every grade level, beginning at first grade. The good teacher is one who detects the pupil/student falling behind and pays special attention to get them onstream. You do not need an asylum to do that. In the process, you stigmatize technical vocational education. Students must choose such programs as a matter of interest and employment possibility and not because they required remedial work.
Thank you
GORDON;
lET’S WORK AT WEEDING OUT THE INFLUENCES THAT SYSTEMATICALLY PUT OUR PEOPLE IN REVERSE GEAR.
We are looking at Goldberg who seems happy with the system as it is. We question his motive and agenda.
He is no longer behind the scenes and the more he features, the more our education system is being eroded…as we see it.
While I cant blame this one man as an individual because he is extremely polite, we suspect that he is representing the forces that enjoy the backwardness of a people who have the potential to transform the world…our children are so pearlly bright!!!
However, it seems hurdles are calculated to be placed in our way in order to maintain an unending struggle for equality and freedom.
Our oppressors know how to position their agents to subtly entrench their agenda. And as usual, they are comfortable with those policy makers who refuse to take the responsibility of safe guarding the interest of future generations.
It will take minds like yours to make a difference. Continue with your thought process…One day things MUST get better.
Thak you