Education In Focus Part I
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From its inception, the introduction of ‘formal education’ in the post-
Thomas Donlan in his book, ‘A World of Wealth’, notes that ‘when productivity is rising in a society, wealth is being created, more wealth is available-
From the first wave of massive budgetary investments in school infrastructure and an injection of ‘technology’ in the classroom, we have come a long way from equating successes with a checklist of how many computers were available at a school and how many facilities were renovated or built per year. In general, school overcrowding, failure rates at primary school leaving exams, gender disparities in achievement, dropout rates and even student violence have become some of the main issues that confront Caribbean societies. In Barbados, for instance, a decade has passed since the introduction of the EDUTECH reform initiative. However, there is consensus that the entire education system cannot be geared solely towards the production of scholars and academic achievement.
Fast forward to 2014, North American states are caught in debates over the implementation of ‘Common Core’ curriculum reform and likewise, countries like Trinidad and Tobago have achieved a massive turnaround in the delivery of the Primary School curriculum via the introduction of the ‘Continuous Assessment Component’ (C.A.C.). Students are now introduced to more comprehensive components of drama, dance, physical education, science, citizenry development and character development, with a proposal for some grades to be forwarded to the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and not just the Secondary Assessment Examination (S.E.A.) body.
Overall, the latest C.A.C initiative, though praiseworthy for its emphasis on continuing teacher education and diversification of the curriculum, lacks intrinsic adaptability value in its methodology and an even more concerning, lack of physical infrastructure to implement it.
With teachers in protest over the long hours for re-
In February, the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO launched its education based project on ‘Leading for Literacy and Numeracy’. The goal of this project is to ‘provide a more holistic environment conducive to learning.’ Under this consideration, the concept of ‘Differentiated Instruction’ comes into play, highlighting the need for teachers to be mindful of different strategies necessary to effectively foster learning in children of varying levels of learning ability within the same classroom. The current pilot programme in Trinidad is said to have begun in forty primary schools and is currently engaging students at Infants year one and two.
Training and development is also being targeted towards School Administrators who will undergo specialized leadership instruction.
The Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago contends that the new primary curriculum is a step towards moving away from the ‘assessment culture’ and ‘exam-
The Primary School system is possibly the most crucial zone for fostering the intellectual and emotional growth of future citizenry. Within this emerging shift away from education’s ‘Industrial Age’ we must be mindful that our reform objectives are not simply a reactive stance to declining ‘P.I.S.A.’ ranking scores or any other statistical assessment that demonstrates merit based on students’ exam scores.
The provision of ‘quality education’ and the role of ‘schooling’ must be recognized for their distinction from each other and then re-
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