#BTColumn – Education reform: a promissory note

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

It appears that Barbados is about to undergo another attempt at education reform. The eminent Canadian intellectual Northrop Fryewrote that: “Education is a vision of the ideal world we seek to create.”If in fact, it is a vision of an Ideal, it is not surprising that we should seek to reform, transform, rethink or tinker with whatever we perceive to be wrong with the process we call, “education”.

It is unlikely that we can ever create an ideal education system because schooling mirrors the real world and the real world is far from the ideal. This does not mean that we should cease trying to change things for the better. There seems to be two views of local education. One suggests that “we have one of the best educational systems in the world.”

This reflects not only ignorance, but typical Barbadian self-congratulation. The other view says that the system is “failing of our children,” that too many cannot read, write, comprehend, perform basic numeracy skills and are woefully inarticulate. Don’t forget the claim that they can’t think critically, even in a society that, truth be told, tends to abhor critical thought.

I am not sure what the Government, the Minister of Education and the Committee’s Director are seeking to achieve. We are living increasingly in an age of symbolism rather than substance and public relations rather than public information. The Education Reform Committee seems to have a wide remit, much of it clouded in vague abstractions.

Just in case readers think I am being unnecessarily cynical let me say that having examined the history of education reform, such proposals do not generally speaking produce the transformative results they envisage.

Perhaps the most exorbitant claims ever made for education reform was in 1965 when Vice President Hubert Humphrey stated that American schools would “rid the nation of slums, violence and unemployment and give us world peace.” That was 1965.

In 1983 the Report A Nation at Risk warned of “a rising tide of mediocrity” and it reached the scathing conclusion that: “ if an unfriendly foreign power has attempted to impose on America the mediocre education performance that exists today, we might well have declared it an act of war.” Almost two decades later, another American President could declare that American education was in a state of recession.

Reform initiatives tend to reflect political rather than pedagogical objectives. Similarly, they often ignore factors in the culture that are serious inhibitors to academic achievement, or educate towards negative ends, particularly in children from the lower socio-economic strata.

The Bush 43 administration had the slogan “No child left behind”. It was a largely political mantra. The Republican Party in America is notorious for a lack of full support for social welfare issues. Most of its leaders opposed Obama Care and even now they are opposing President Biden’s Child Care initiatives.

One of the critical deficiencies in American schooling is the manner in which it is financed, particularly at the State level through local taxes. Schools in wealthy areas which pay higher property taxes are better funded than schools in poorer areas with a lower tax base.

Thus although historically, American education emerged out of the ‘common school,’ it has become very stratified. Whites occupy the sub-urban better institutions, while Blacks and Hispanics occupy the less enabling inner city facilities. Time has suggested that this divide appears to be beyond reform.

The other factor is the culture. On May 6 it was reported that a grade six female student had shot a school custodian and two fellow students with a gun brought to school in a back-pack. Compare that to Japanese schools where the culture inclines students to clasp hands and bow to the teacher when he or she enters the classroom.

School systems seldom rise above the culture in which they function. Worldwide, the systems that perform best are those where there exist, firstly, a high level of social discipline,
and secondly, an appreciably high level of material wellbeing across the board.

Admittedly there are serious issues in Barbadian education related to structure, content and process. However the main problem with Barbadian education today is not so much schooling itself, it is the societal ambience in which schools currently function. Most of the ‘reformers’ have not been in a school since they left school.

They are unaware of the adverse existential realities schools increasingly confront. Qualitatively, neither the teaching nor the learning is what it should be and needs to be. Another problem is that, as elsewhere, school systems are failing to recruit and retain the cadre of teacher required to enhance effective learning.

Addressing the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Lecture in 1998, Helena Kennedy stated that that there were three things that make her cynical about notions of education reform. She stated: “The source of my despondency was mainly to do with the devaluing of teachers; a philistine dismissal of intellectuals and a utilitarian approach to the value of education.”

The goals of the proposed reform initiative seem quite far-reaching. They would affect the structure, the content as well as the processes of the Barbadian education system. Nowadays, we seem to be in a rush to change things without giving due thought to why or how. Structural education reforms are always problematic as no one knows how they will actually work.

They can give rise to what Albert Shanker, former President of the American Federation of Teachers once called, “gross distortions and irresponsible experimentation.” The notion of a ‘Middle School’ is a concept, largely untried in the Caribbean. It promises untold complications. In the Common Entrance controversy, the exam itself is not the issue.

The issue is the system of transfer to the secondary tier, in a structure that is very hierarchical in a society that is still class structured. Education systems may mollify class stratification, they cannot abolish it. Stratification is a product of theeconomic system, not of the school system.

Surveys have shown that if 50 percent of Barbadian parents want to abolish the Eleven Plus, the other 50 per cent want to retain it.

It will be very interesting to see how all this will play out. As with the Education Sector Enhancement Programme (Edutech), are we being promised another “Learning Revolution”.

Ralph Jemmott is a respected retired educator.