Thursday, March 28, 2024

IN THE CANDID CORNER – Sixth form: whose glory?

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For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. – Luke 12:48
 
First let me congratulate those 34 young Barbadians who took this year’s awards both as winners of Scholarships and Exhibitions. In this context, their parents and indeed their teachers must also be lauded for their role in this level of academic excellence.
This year’s performance in the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) has raised a number of issues, chief of which has been that of the sixth form schools in general. While it is generally accepted that all students in sixth form educational institutions cannot achieve Scholarship or Exhibition status, there is still the expectation that sixth form schools should share this podium of academic excellence.
According to the Saturday Sun of August 13, “The Lodge School and Combermere failed to make the grade this year”.
In an Yvette Best article entitled Schools Slide Worry, Minister of Education and Human Resource Development Ronald Jones, while noting that The Lodge and Combermere were still performing well, is quoted as saying: “Those schools would have to see what is causing a bit of slippage . . . . They would have to look at what is impacting on them in that way.”
The minister also indicated the high demand for post-secondary education, noting that education officials were expecting a “flood” of applications for sixth form places.
It is in this context that the upgrading of The St Michael School and Christ Church Foundation School must be seen. While the move is laudable, one wonders whether the two new sixth form institutions will fare any better than the two who are currently hard-pressed to obtain Scholarships or awards at the CAPE level.
Principal of the Lodge School, Mr Trevor Pilgrim, reminded Barbadians and the minister, who voiced his concerns of his school’s position in the pecking order at Common Entrance vis-à-vis that of Harrison College and Queen’s College. Said he: “The brightest students in the island, and again at the lower sixth, they get the brightest students from all over the island again. One could ask the question: why don’t they get more Scholarships? I have nothing against those schools; I’m just looking at the system.”
As one who has been examining the issues in our educational system, I am glad that this issue has surfaced in the way it has. It is my assessment that at the core of our educational hardware is an offensive software of attitudes and perceptions that are directly linked to how schools, teachers and students are seen and judged, not only during their school career, but long after.
I continue to marvel at the stratification and hierarchical structure of our school system and the role it plays in how we sort people in this society. While the minister’s concerns for accountability are not misplaced, are we to judge sixth form schools based on how many scholarships they achieve?
Hasn’t Combermere already produced a Prime Minister? Hasn’t it given us Rihanna? Hasn’t The Lodge School already produced numerous outstanding citizens across the spectrum of society? The question is whether the schools are doing their best with what they get.
Who gets Barbados Scholarships? Every year we make a song and dance as we celebrate the top ten or the top 20 students in the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination. Another question that might be asked is whether the performance at 11-Plus is any accurate indication of who will win a Barbados Scholarship or Exhibition?
Having perused my archives, I have noted that only one of the top ten Common Entrance students in 2004 is among the persons awarded Scholarships this year. This female who attended Harrison College was the top student in the island back then and achieved ten Grade 1s in 2009. She is to be highly applauded for her consistency.
While none of the top ten boys was among the scholarship winners this year, one got an Exhibition. How did those students who were not tops in 2004 manage to achieve scholarship status seven years later? The Ministry of Education would need to research for its own analysis the relationship between performance in the 11-Plus and achieving a Barbados Scholarship.
How did the other nine top boys and girls perform at CXC General Proficiency, as well as at CAPE?
Given the minister’s concern, one may ask: to whom should sixth form glory be attributed? Are the teachers of the sixth form schools adequately qualified to deliver the goods? If indeed they are, why do the parents of many students at all sixth form schools have to spend thousands of dollars paying for extra lessons?
Are the students applying themselves diligently to their studies, or are they spending too much time in St Lawrence Gap feting and imbibing alcohol from Thursday to Saturday night?
Everybody, including the parents, must be called to account when we bring analysis to bear on the performance of our educational institutions, regardless of where they are in the pecking order. It is only then that we all can share in the glory or the lack of it!
 

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