There are many misconceptions that apply to the Government's policy of revolutionising the education system. Scholarships for students and teachers alike...new school buildings in the exact same colours all over the island...but allow me to pay attention to the 'No child shall be left behind' story.
I am not an educator...I am merely educated and an example of how the grace of God saved me from a system I will never understand.
But it would seem to me that if we are going to be sending every child that writes the Common Entrance exam straight to secondary school...we may as well do away with that process. How about adopting an evaluation-based exam that would assist in determining the reading, math and processing skills of a child? Something that would indicate what areas need to be focused on when that child is automatically placed in a secondary school.
Because, I can assure you that if the system remains the way it was when I was in secondary school (oh lord it is almost 10 years since)...the chances of our nation's children improving basic learning skills and strategies are rather slim. Especially since most of their families cannot afford private schools and after-school tutoring of quality standards.
As I said earlier, I am not certain how I made it through the system but it was not until university that I discovered, on my own, that I was a long-distance runner and not a sprinter like what the system wanted. I preferred to plan(train), write out everything I read (stretch), study(eat healthy nutritious foods) not CRAM (drink loads of coffee and red bull/be tempted to steal notes or a book even/mamaguy your fellow classmates as what topic you swear is coming for the exam/mamaguy yourself into thinking that no sleep is an ok state of existence/come to the exam looking like shit/conduct a postmortem on the paper and cuss out the person you phoned at three in the morning for the notes from Lecture # 5.
When is the new generation going to figure what kind of student they are? Will they ever or will they just hope to beat the system and not even remember what moves they made?
And the other classic feature of the Retardation process...dozens upon dozens of teachers with shit degrees in education...I swear the newspapers made a mint from the congrats to this and that teacher garbed in that horrendous blue robe (I wore it to...so I am damn well entitled to criticise it).
The Government is giving away degree costs and opportunities in a manner that can only be described as atrocious. More money is being spent I swear to buy out the votes of the educators of our country...the cost of teachers therefore increased because they have entered a new salary bracket (which is the reason most of them do the programme anyway) but the quality of education is stagnant. The dichotomy between the improvment on one side and the stillness on the other is petrifying to me.
Where are the specialist teachers...the ones that focus on math...reading...writing...spelling... pronounciation...grammar...general learning skills acquisition. Where are the ones that teach the foreign languges fluently bringing another culture alive...where are the ones that take you on field trips (not because both teacher and student are fed up of the classroom) but the ones that want to instill a sense of national pride and identity in the teaching of our history and social studies.
Rather, we are fostering a people that think it is acceptable to have an empty degree once you are a public servant (because you dare not try that madness in the private sector). If I see another library with ten books and three wooden tables or water tap project in the newspaper again...I will scream.
All these degrees in Education with Administration skills and other inapplicable areas are utter bullocks and blatthery...they make no impression on the system...on the child...they merely drain what we barely have for no return and the sad part is that the creator of the Retardation of the education process and the teachers;
(1) seem not to care
(2) seem to be unaware of the perpuation of ignorance
or my personal conviction
(3) are fervently hoping that no one catches on to the scheme.
I am not an educator...I am merely educated and an example of how the grace of God saved me from a system I will never understand.
But it would seem to me that if we are going to be sending every child that writes the Common Entrance exam straight to secondary school...we may as well do away with that process. How about adopting an evaluation-based exam that would assist in determining the reading, math and processing skills of a child? Something that would indicate what areas need to be focused on when that child is automatically placed in a secondary school.
Because, I can assure you that if the system remains the way it was when I was in secondary school (oh lord it is almost 10 years since)...the chances of our nation's children improving basic learning skills and strategies are rather slim. Especially since most of their families cannot afford private schools and after-school tutoring of quality standards.
As I said earlier, I am not certain how I made it through the system but it was not until university that I discovered, on my own, that I was a long-distance runner and not a sprinter like what the system wanted. I preferred to plan(train), write out everything I read (stretch), study(eat healthy nutritious foods) not CRAM (drink loads of coffee and red bull/be tempted to steal notes or a book even/mamaguy your fellow classmates as what topic you swear is coming for the exam/mamaguy yourself into thinking that no sleep is an ok state of existence/come to the exam looking like shit/conduct a postmortem on the paper and cuss out the person you phoned at three in the morning for the notes from Lecture # 5.
When is the new generation going to figure what kind of student they are? Will they ever or will they just hope to beat the system and not even remember what moves they made?
And the other classic feature of the Retardation process...dozens upon dozens of teachers with shit degrees in education...I swear the newspapers made a mint from the congrats to this and that teacher garbed in that horrendous blue robe (I wore it to...so I am damn well entitled to criticise it).
The Government is giving away degree costs and opportunities in a manner that can only be described as atrocious. More money is being spent I swear to buy out the votes of the educators of our country...the cost of teachers therefore increased because they have entered a new salary bracket (which is the reason most of them do the programme anyway) but the quality of education is stagnant. The dichotomy between the improvment on one side and the stillness on the other is petrifying to me.
Where are the specialist teachers...the ones that focus on math...reading...writing...spelling... pronounciation...grammar...general learning skills acquisition. Where are the ones that teach the foreign languges fluently bringing another culture alive...where are the ones that take you on field trips (not because both teacher and student are fed up of the classroom) but the ones that want to instill a sense of national pride and identity in the teaching of our history and social studies.
Rather, we are fostering a people that think it is acceptable to have an empty degree once you are a public servant (because you dare not try that madness in the private sector). If I see another library with ten books and three wooden tables or water tap project in the newspaper again...I will scream.
All these degrees in Education with Administration skills and other inapplicable areas are utter bullocks and blatthery...they make no impression on the system...on the child...they merely drain what we barely have for no return and the sad part is that the creator of the Retardation of the education process and the teachers;
(1) seem not to care
(2) seem to be unaware of the perpuation of ignorance
or my personal conviction
(3) are fervently hoping that no one catches on to the scheme.
someone remarked recently that with all the degrees teachers possess now it is strange that so many kids get to secondary school and can barely read. It's a sad indictment
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ReplyDeletei agree with you on certain things, but i have to say that sweeping generalizations like this irk me... it is sad that teachers who DO have a genuine love and commitment to the profession and to our nation's children have to be tarred with the same brush as those who don't...
ReplyDeleteof course, it also becomes very easy to find yourself buried in an imperfect system when you realize that genuine innovation is (more often than not) given little credence...
Sorry Will, if I seemed to bash everyone...that was not my intention. I do have a true passion for a genuine education revolution because I genuinely think that it is too restrictive both on teachers and students.
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