Holness foresees drastic gov't intervention in failing schools

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Education Minister Andrew Holness on Monday told principals of secondary schools in the Caribbean that regional governments will soon have to take drastic actions in dealing with failing schools.

Holness, who was addressing the opening of the 23rd biennial conference of the Caribbean Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (CAPSS) here, noted that a vast majority of the island's secondary schools were not the preferred choices of Jamaican parents.

"... Where a school is offering 400 (GSAT) spaces and only 17 parents choose it is a challenge of secondary education in the 21st century," Holness said. "These institutions year after year receive government funds, hire teachers; they conduct a school, but if you were to track their performance... (you realise they are failing)," Holness told delegates attending the opening ceremony of the conference at Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios.

"I think the time is coming where not just Jamaica but right across the region governments will have to take radical approaches to intervene in failing schools," added the minister.

He said while the concept of a failing school has not yet entered the vocabulary of education in a significant way in the region, he doesn't believe the system is doing children any service if failing schools are allowed to continue without drastic intervention.

Speaking specifically to what obtains in Jamaica and the selection of secondary schools through the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), Holness said only 50 of the country's 167 schools are preferred choices among parents.

Meanwhile, the education minister said the Caribbean region is faced with the challenge of expanding secondary education, pointing out that in some countries there is only about 60 per cent universal coverage, while in other countries their coverage ranged between 90 to 95 per cent.

He said one of the challenges of the 21st century for Caribbean governments is to expand secondary education such that it is a universal service. He pointed to the problem of secondary school spaces and said most schools have to be engaged in a system of rationing because of limited available spaces.

"For us, because secondary spaces are not enough, we have to ration them and we ration them by virtue of the grades. At the secondary level in the United States, however, they ration by lottery," he pointed out.

Holness, meanwhile, pointed to what he described as the great income inequality among the classes and how it impacts education. He expressed hope that as the society evolves the spread of education would help to reduce inequality in the society.

The CAPSS conference, which began on Sunday under the theme 'Secondary Education in the Caribbean, A 21st Century Perspective', runs through to Friday.

Some 80 principals from secondary schools in the Bahamas, Belize, St Lucia, Cayman Islands, St Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Barbados have joined about 50 0f their colleague principals in Jamaica for the conference.

President of CAPSS Sharon Reid said that the conference theme was carefully selected and that she anticipates that it would create a framework and allow flexibility to examine the current status of secondary education in the Caribbean.

"As educational leaders in the region we have benefited tremendously from the creative and productive conversations that take place when we meet together and the conference programme has been designed to allow for what we expect to be thought- provoking and solution- oriented discussion," she said.

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COMMENTS (7)

Peter Claude
7/20/2011

@Jakan 2011 y0u are so right. why is it that most people dont see it this way? If you send all the kids that do very well to the same school then surely that school will do better that the ones that got the kids that didnt do as well. Therefore the teacher in those schools have a harder job than the ones that got all the kids that did well. How much teaching does a teacher have to do when all her kids are all smart? The system is so stupid. makes not sense..

Dan cee
7/20/2011

I agree with Mr. Holness intervention is necessary for those elementary/primary and secondary schools that are failing.However,a universal definition of failing is necessary. Then you can classify the schools using letter grades from A - F.,F being the failing grade.Corrective action such as firing the CEO (principal),frequent monitoring of school personnel by the ministry (3-4 times wkly).,transferring of teachers,improving training.However,the CXC CANNOT BE THE ONLY MEASUREMENT TOOL.

Yard Vibz
7/20/2011

Conscious reasoning, Jakan! Holness says that to the best of his knowledge, parents have turned up their noses at about 70% of our High schools.... And why is that so, Andrew? Don't you see that there is a problem when a lad who resides next-door to Mannings in Sav, travels 2 hrs to attend CC in Mobay, or from Ocho, St Ann to KC in Kgn? Sir, try to orchestrate & develop a sustainable system that would evenly distribute all 1st formers to schools within 10km of their residence.... GSAT is flawed!

Richard Kitson-Walters
7/20/2011

Holness and his uncouth self chose to address the issue (albeit urgent) of failure throughout the Jamaican school system to an audience of Caribbean educators. Mr Holness makes no effort to contextualize the widespread failure at the secondary level but chooses instead to threaten intevention thus making light of the complexities inherent in finding an antidote to treat the pandemic. He needs to tell us what this intervention will look like and stop making making threats without substance.

Wayne binghamwayne@hotmail.com
7/20/2011

Mr. Minister, you need to tread very carefully along the path to "rescue" our schools. It would be a grave miscalculation to focus on our educators as the primary cause of "failing school". You might not be a teacher, but if your advisors are leading you down this path it is probably reflective of a lack of a true appreciation for the complexity and reality of this issue. I know it seems easy to beat-up on our teachers, but it is a ruse and canard to suggest teachers are the problem.

critical thinker
7/20/2011

How about taking your eyes off the UN Millenium Development goals of dumbing down third-word nations so that others (we know the usual suspects, they are bombing Libya now) can confiscate their economy. Massive deception, and it takes the same analogous form: teach children sexuality without the opinion of parents, 'reform' education without the input of teachers, take over the economy of a people and their public utilities while their elected government stands aside (privatization). EU ah ah.

Jakan 2011
7/20/2011

How can they blame the schools when the results merely reflect the types of student (material) placed in them. Campion will forever look like the greatest because it gets all the great students when in reality its output may be worse than others. Change the system to level the playing field before making such threats. It will be interesting to see how Minister Holness identifies "failing school"

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Holness foresees drastic gov't intervention in failing schools