{"id":166945,"date":"2016-08-02T09:36:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T13:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=166945"},"modified":"2016-08-02T09:36:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T13:36:57","slug":"commentary-school-text-books-questions-and-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/commentary\/commentary-school-text-books-questions-and-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: School text books – questions and answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roger
Roger Burnett with children attending the UWI Summer Arts Program<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last year the Education Minister, Petter Saint Jean, raised concerns about the number of text books required by students at Grade 6 level. Well let me tell you, the minister\u2019s concern is nothing compared to the shock, horror and disbelief of parents at the number and cost of text books at all levels.<\/p>\n

The cost of the text books required by my son, now entering his third year at the Dominica Grammar School, adds up to almost one thousand dollars.
\nThis begs two questions: why so many and why so expensive.<\/p>\n

First, let us investigate the high cost of text books. Over the last thirty years, due to improved printing technology, the cost of books in general has gone down. However, over the same period the cost of text books has risen dramatically. Given that the publisher has a guaranteed market and a captive audience – 16 English speaking Caribbean Countries subscribe to the CXC syllabus – the price should be less. But when it comes to text books, the traditional factors that exert a control over prices don\u2019t exist: the consumer has no choice. You are told what you must buy.<\/p>\n

Secondly: why so many. Are frequent new editions really necessary and why does the life span of a book cover only one year out of six. Mathematics and the English language have not significantly changed in centuries. The properties of a circle remain the same, as does the use of nouns and verbs.
\nLooking through my son\u2019s past text books only a fraction of the pages are dog-eared and pencil marked, suggesting that 90% of the contents have not been needed. One expensive text book has never been used at all! Curiously, Business Studies, the one subject that might benefit from up to date material, requires no text book.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the combined weight of text books, exercise books and other contents of the school bag must exceed health and safety requirements for a child. Even if the child can take the weight, the bags can\u2019t. The stitching and zippers begin to go before the end of the first term.<\/p>\n

This brings us to a third question: why text books at all.<\/p>\n

We now have the benefit of the internet and every student has a tablet. Hence, we have a most amazing resource tool, but one that is not being used to its full potential. When computers were first introduced to UK schools in the 1990\u2019s, I relayed a day-to-day account of work in progress on a piece of sculpture that was specially commissioned for that purpose. These and subsequent diary pages were eventually accessed by schools and colleges through the world. With the advent of tablets, I began a similar site for Dominican students. However, the education authority showed no interest in alerting schools, nor the press in informing the general public. Hence, my virtual notesforartstudents.blogspot.com soon became virtually dead.<\/p>\n

But technology aside, the most ingenious teaching device ever invented has been around for centuries. I refer to the blackboard!<\/p>\n

When I went to Secondary Modern School in the UK in the 1950\u2019s, there were no text books. Teachers taught from the blackboard. A blackboard is cost effective, focuses the class and has endless creative possibilities. Although most of my teachers had never attended College, their teaching was pure theater. They could hold the most unruly class spell bound. But if the attention of Johnny on the back row wandered, the teacher\u2019s well-aimed blackboard duster soon brought him back to earth \u2013 with good humor all round. For literature, one book was passed around the class and the children read aloud in turn. Classroom walls were decorated with art work and along the corridors hung prints from famous paintings. It was along those corridors that I first saw the work of Degas and Vincent Van Gogh.<\/p>\n

Let me assure you that I am passionate about books, learning and literature. Furthermore, I firmly believe that good teachers are worth their weight in gold. But an over-reliance on text books is not the best way of learning, nor is it the best way of teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year the Education Minister, Petter Saint Jean, raised concerns about the number of text books required by students at Grade 6 level. 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