Dump the Common Entrance Examination and allow the Ministry of Education to oversee the running of the Government Industrial School (GIS).
These two suggestions have been put forward by veteran educator, John Goddard, who says reform of the education sector in Barbados is long overdue.
He made the comments this evening while speaking on a webinar hosted by the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) entitled Education Reform in a COVID Environment.
Goddard, who has been teaching for over 40 years, contended that the present education system was producing too many failures.
He said it was his view that all children could learn, albeit in different ways and at different speeds.
Goddard said the COVID-19 pandemic provided the perfect opportunity to discontinue the Common Entrance Examination.
“I am a known critic of the Common Entrance Examination and I have come to this position because I have taught at one of the schools which is considered to be at the bottom of the scale and of course the elite of the elite, so I understand what impact the exam has on children
“In my view this year, this COVID year, in fact since last year, it presented a wonderful opportunity to get rid of the Common Entrance exam.
“There are enough secondary schools in Barbados that all can provide an environment in which quality education can be delivered. Why do we need to continue with an examination which selects a group of children to send to schools that we consider to be the crème de la crème and then we identify a number of students who we tell them that they pass but we know that they do not pass, the marks are well below 30 per cent?
“And we send them to other schools and then we expect them to follow the same programme and to write these at the CXC programme at the same time and when they don’t we judge them on those grounds,” Goddard said.
“It seems to me that until we do something about the Common Entrance Examination we are going to continue to have a large number of children who are going to be disengaged, who are going to gravitate towards the blocks because they do not gain anything from the education that we offer. By the time a number of our children reach Common Entrance stage they are already turned off.”
As an alternative, Goddard suggested that diagnostic testing be done at primary school when children reach ages seven and nine.
He said this could be used to identify weaknesses and strengthen them.
“By age 11 the test that they are going to set is to determine readiness for secondary school, not to determine which school children are going to go to. We should not by age 11 still have a large number of children who cannot read and write. That is an indictment on the system not on the children,” he pointed out, while insisting there was no need for elitist schools.
Goddard, who also had a brief stint at GIS, said he was puzzled about why that institution did not fall under the Ministry of Education.
He said it was important for students who attend GIS to be provided with quality education.
“I cannot understand why the GIS falls under the auspices of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Attorney General’s Chambers. In my view, those children are still children in need of education. The Ministry of Education should be given responsibility for the institution, at least the greater responsibility for that institution because those children should not be deprived of the opportunity to have a sound education,” Goddard said.
“Having fallen afoul of the law should not be a reason why they must not be exposed to education. So I would want in any reform that the role of the GIS is taken into consideration…and reform includes making sure that good quality education is provided for those children.”
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)
