Opposition members blast Education Ministry for ‘poor’ CSEC results
“If seven out of 10 students cannot pass Math, six out of 10 cannot pass English and four out of 10 cannot pass with top grades, then we have a national disaster on our hands…” -Dr. David Hinds
By: Kiana Wilburg
Despite isolated outstanding performances at the recent Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, Guyanese students performed poorly and there is a view that the administration is in large part to be blamed for this, “national disaster.”
Head of State, Donald Ramotar, this past week while addressing the National Economic Forum, told stakeholders that the massive investments in Education are paying off.
Amna Ally
Any analysis of the examination results however demonstrates a different picture. Mathematics in particular, has recorded the lowest pass rate this year.
In fact, the pass rate for this subject area has notably declined since 2010.
In 2010, only 34.5 per cent of students who sat the examination managed to pass and this declined in 2011 to 30.4 per cent.
By 2012, the pass rate for Mathematics plummeted further to 29.69 per cent and only 28.92 per cent of the students were successful this year.
Former Finance Minister, A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU), Carl Greenidge, believes that the serving Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, ‘spends too much time on Public Relations work.’
Greenidge, a practicing economist and former lecturer at the University of Guyana, in the past, had lectured on Education at several overseas based tertiary institutions.
According to Greenidge, “the Minister should leave the announcements and public reading of CSEC results to the professional staff of the Ministry and concentrate on looking at how resources are allocated for the assistance of guiding policies to correct the inadequacies these results suggest.”
Greenidge posits, “There is something fundamentally wrong with the education system and current policies.”
While the causes of unsatisfactory performances, particularly in Mathematics are many, the Shadow Finance Minister believes a misallocation of financial resources between primary and other levels of education is also to be blamed.
He lambasted too “the silly and pernicious” misapplication of the policy of ‘no-child left behind’ and the noticeable lack of trained teachers.
Greenidge said that the teaching profession needs attention with regard to salaries, incentives, and less politicization within the system.
“We also need to pay stricter attention to homes as the environment can also affect the child…We must also see addressing the deficiencies in education in this context as well,” said Greenidge.
Carl Greenidge
APNU’s Shadow Minister with responsibility for Education, Amna Ally, pointed out that while there is a variety of causes that have led to the poor performances at this year’s sitting of the CSEC examinations, she believes that the absence of skilled Mathematics teachers is pivotal.
“While those who have performed exceedingly well must be congratulated we must also pay attention to those who have performed poorly, the causes of such and how we can improve in these areas.”
Associate Professor, Dr. David Hinds, who also weighed in on the examination results, is of the opinion that despite some excellent individual performances at this year’s CSEC, children as a group continue to under-perform.
According to Dr. Hinds, “If seven out of 10 students cannot pass Math, six out of 10 cannot pass English and four out of 10 cannot pass with top grades, then we have a national disaster on our hands.”
The Professor said that while it is difficult to pinpoint any single cause of the problem, “certainly governance must be high up on that list.”
He reminds that it is at the administrative level that national priorities are decided.
“It is there where the decisions are made with regard to how much resources are expended on education and how those resources are used.”
“Allied to that cause,” according to Dr Hinds, “is the inability of poor parents and poor communities to offer the kind of supplementary assistance and guidance to their children”.
“The recycling of poverty therefore is one of the major contributing causes of the problem…Poor people who have to hustle and /or work several jobs to make ends meet obviously do not have the time to oversee and monitor their children’s progress…Linked to that, is the decline in the communities as spaces of collective pride, dignity, culture and learning.”
He believes that Education is no longer “projected as the gateway to individual and collective overcoming of circumstances.”
Several Mathematicians who spoke to this publication also believe that the decline in performance is hinged upon the administration within the Education Ministry.
Dr. David Hinds
“It is of critical importance that mathematical teachers be involved in the decision making process with regard to the syllabus…Most students have a natural fear towards the subject area and with this in mind it is strongly suggested that the teaching strategies of the subject area be revised.”
With combined experience in excess of thirty years in the profession, the mathematicians suggest the introduction of workshops that would be able to help teachers break away from “the text-book method of teaching.”
“It is high time that we have workshops to revise the ways in which we better communicate these topics to our students.”
