We are failing our children

 

Ministry of Education, Youth and Information
Kingston, Jamaica

Have you ever been frustrated by seeing clothing sold as ‘one size fits all’? Obviously this cannot be true, but for manufacturers it may be more cost effective to produce for the average sized person. Larger and smaller people will have to do without. It seems that is also the case in the educational system. Children vary in natural ability, home environment, early stimulation, exposure to reading material, nutrition and quality of sleep, but they are all supposed to fit the same curriculum. We are failing them when we don’t tailor the curriculum to make provisions for every child to learn to read at their grade level.     
      In my blog post of October I expressed my disappointment and alarm about the content of grade 4 science in the New Standard Curriculum. Now I am angry about the whole Grade 4 Curriculum. It seems to be designed for the top 20% of the children, those who are headed for the traditional high schools. It is crammed with content which has to be covered in a specific time frame. There is no latitude to allow teachers to go at a slower pace, or to spend time reviewing, or to give any individual attention. For example, in Social Studies, the first topic is the Tainos. I don’t have a problem with the topic, but the way it is taught and the amount of detail required. To make it more “interesting”, the children are given information in a cryptic form, such as scrambled words, e.g. the translation of the Taino word “maguey” is scrambled as “bnmirtaeou”. They are often directed to the internet, which many of them have no access to. At the end of the topic, they are tested on factual information, about the Taino diet, dwellings, clothing, religion and mode of transport, which they are expected to recall. There is no critical thinking involved.

 

     Turning to math, to which an hour every day is devoted, the main problem is that the foundation is not there. Teachers in grades 1-3 have to stick to a rigid curriculum. If students haven’t understood a topic, too bad, they must move on to the next topic. In a search for better performance in math, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information turned to Singapore Math. They recently concluded a Mathematics Forum, in conjunction with the Book Merchant, distributors of Scholastic -Prime Mathematics in Jamaica. These expensive books would probably be purchased only by prep schools, but the basis of the method could be used in all schools – that is that all the children in the class should understand the concept being taught before they move on to the next topic. Surely this is more important than racing through the curriculum and leaving half the children behind? Some of the misconceptions which occur are illustrated by the response of a 9 year-old boy to these questions:

“What is 100 take away 1?” Answer – zero. He took away the 1 in the hundreds place to get this answer.

            “Which is more $500 or $278.43?” Answer - $278.43. Why? The latter has more digits!
       Another requirement of Singapore Math is the teachers should be well-trained. Unfortunately, many primary school teachers are themselves deficient in this area, and retraining of teachers would be expensive. But what would it cost to cut the content of the curriculum? It would make more sense to do so, than to have to keep re-teaching. As it is, most of the concepts taught in Grade 6 are repeated in Grade 7.

Reading is an essential requirement for all subjects. Too many children are reading below grade level and have limited vocabularies, partly because they have not been provided with sufficient appropriate reading material in lower grades. They have low self-esteem and motivation, having been already turned off learning by repeatedly failing tests in grades 1-3. They are further frustrated by not being able to do grade 4 assignments and therefore give trouble. Teachers then have to devote much of their energies to disciplining these children. Their task is compounded by having as many as 50 children in a class. 



Granville All Age School, St. James

If I were in a position to do so, I would prune the whole primary school curriculum, and place the main emphasis on ensuring that all children become functionally literate and numerate. I would shift the focus from the top 20% to the lower 40%. For children who master the task at hand before other children, enrichment activities such as supplementary reading, puzzles games and research projects can be given. They could also be called on to assist the weaker children, so developing a spirit of volunteerism.

The mantra of the MOEYI is "Every Child Can Learn - Every Child Must Learn". But every child cannot learn at the same pace and should not be expected to do so. Some Principals, like Mrs. Kandi-Lee Crooks Smith of Allman Town Primary School have had the foresight to abandon the curriculum and introduce innovative ideas. She says "... schools should stop tying themselves to curricula and explore what engages children and use that in order to enhance the teaching and learning process."   The MOEYI should encourage other principals to follow her example.