Male underachievement continues

Jul 08, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor;
The results of the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations, previously referred to as the Common Entrance Examination, have revealed that much more needed to be done to reduce disparities in student attainment levels especially with respect to rural and hinterland schools. A similar pattern is evident with the CXC examinations where urban schools outperform rural and hinterland schools by a significant margin.
At the national level, the phenomenon of male underachievement continues to be a worrying trend which needed to be carefully analyzed with a view to correcting what appears to be a gender specific problematic in respect to learning outcomes.
A more recent, and no less disturbing trend, has been the tendency for private schools to outperform those in the public domain especially when it comes to those children who make it to Queens College and other senior secondary schools such as Bishops High School, St. Stanislaus College and St. Roses High School. This raises some serious questions about equity in terms of the delivery of quality education since by their very nature private schools charge tuition fees that are way above what an average income earner can afford. This means in effect that the rich can afford to send their children to schools where their chances of making it at the top of the attainment ladder are significantly better as the recent results so unmistakably demonstrated.
I am of the view that education must remain secular and government has the responsibility and duty to create a level playing field for all children regardless of family circumstance or geographic location to have an even chance of doing well. In this regard, senior secondary schools that provide opportunities to write the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) or the CXC Advanced Levels should be established in all the ten administrative regions of Guyana with residential facilities in the case of deep hinterlands communities. These schools should be well resourced in terms of teachers and other facilities and the quality of education delivery should be on par with what obtain with respect to the city schools.
Such facilities will go a far way in the democratization of education delivery and will create opportunities for children from all walks of life to make it to the top of the education ladder.
As a former educator, I am convinced that every child has the potential to do well and given the right teaching/learning environment, all children can perform to the full limit of their potential. The current assessment mode is far too competitive and I dare say punitive to children who have little opportunity to enjoy the joys of growing up in that quest to be among the top. I believe the time has come for new measurement and evaluation instruments to be put in place to determine student performance rather than reliance of a single examination as is currently the case.
Let me take the opportunity to congratulate all the students who have excelled at the recent examinations and at the same time wish those who have not done as well as expected to remain positive and optimistic. As the saying goes, the race is not for fastest but for those who can endure the pace.
Hydar Ally

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