Dear Editor,

What a week it has been! Students and teachers have returned to school under various circumstances — partial or complete readiness of infrastructure after the passage of Hurricane Beryl; teacher shortage in several subject areas; clash between Government and Opposition over readiness of schools; divergent views between Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and Ministry of Education and Youth concerning teacher migration statistics; and the resignation of Marsha Smith, state minister for education.

Nonetheless, it is great that students were able to start the new academic year despite some having to take classes under tents or in churches. Commendations to all the stakeholders involved who take serious interest in investing in our nation’s future.

Given the concerns raised this past summer regarding the poor passes in the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams, particularly the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), and the fact that our students continue to perform poorly in English and mathematics and equally so in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam, there is critical need for us to assess the curricula taught in schools against the training and preparedness of our teachers.

In the case of PEP, experts have called for the primary school curriculum to be overhauled to focus on three areas: reading, writing, and arithmetic. Parents have long been lamenting on social media that the children are being given too much work for their age group and the concepts being taught are often difficult for them to grasp. In fact, many of the parents themselves struggle to assist their children.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has taken note of the concerns and has indicated that a revision of the syllabus might be needed.

As for the teachers, some agree that the syllabus is burdensome, while others believe that PEP helps children to develop their critical-thinking and reasoning skills.

A crucial question to ask is whether our teachers are adequately trained to cover the curriculum at the primary and secondary levels. I will focus mainly on the latter since I am more familiar with it, as I was trained to teach that level.

In college, students are told that they are being trained to teach up to the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level; however, the content covered in the teachers’ colleges is far beneath CAPE level. It may even shock you to know that many graduates enter the teaching profession and have no knowledge of the CSEC and CAPE syllabi. “What can go so?” It is simply because it was never covered in their methodology courses.

There is an evident gap between student teachers’ training and what occurs in the actual classroom. Many of them are certified and qualified on paper, but they are not competent to deliver the curriculum.

This links back to some of their own trainers — lecturers — who themselves are weak in content and methodology. They conduct no form of research; they are not well read; therefore, they cannot give sufficiently to their students. Their university colleagues are way ahead of them because they are more involved in their area of specialisation.

But if the majority of our teachers are trained at the teachers’ college level, shouldn’t teacher trainers be among the best and brightest? Aren’t we seeing the blatant disconnect?

Some critical courses are also missing from the bachelor of education degree programmes offered at the teachers’ colleges. Let me use modern languages as an example. How can you be training foreign language teachers but they are not exposed to the international phonetic alphabet? They do no courses in translation, which serves to better understand comparative and contrastive linguistics.

Modern languages teachers are asked to teach French and Spanish literature at the CAPE level, but they have no courses that cover literary criticism or critical approaches to literature. Besides, they sometimes do not even study the books that are taught at the sixth-form level.

I am very annoyed with the system and some of the lackadaisical stakeholders we have at the helm.

And why does it take an interminable amount of time for the Joint Board of Teacher Education and the University Council of Jamaica to approve new courses and new course outlines for teachers’ colleges? Imagine the colleges were to have updated course outlines since 2018 and they are still awaiting approval.

The bureaucracy that governs education is quite stifling. While the system comprises different critical stakeholders, those who train our teachers need to do better.

Equally important is the quality of students that enter our teachers’ colleges. Due to dwindling numbers since former education minister Ronald Thwaites cast gloom over the profession in 2014, the colleges have basically been accepting everybody that comes through their gates, some of whom do not have the requisite qualifications, qualities, or interest in the profession.

Oneil Madden

maddenoniel@yahoo.com