Education Ministry considers two more years in school for underperformers

Students whose performance is below par could get an additional two years in school as part of wide-ranging reforms being formulated by the Ministry of Education to ensure no child is left behind.

Director of Education Reform Dr Idamay Denny made the disclosure while contributing to discussion on the Appropriation Bill, 2022, in the House of Assembly on Friday evening.

Pressed by Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael on the ministry’s plans to address the number of children falling through the cracks, Denny expressed concern that students were not getting the outcomes they should and this must change.

“Schools exist for students and if students are not getting the outcomes as expected, then we are not doing our jobs. We have children who are going to school for 13 years, leaving schools with low certification or no certification, and they are exiting school early – especially our male students – and when they reach the level of fourth form, there are significant levels of attrition,” Denny said.

The respected educator lamented that under the current system, teachers and parents are heavily focused on getting primary school children to pass an exam to enter what are deemed prestigious schools.

“And that means that children who are not moving along at the same pace, the ones not likely to make those schools are the ones being left behind,” she said, adding that the Ministry will press ahead with plans to abolish the Common Entrance exam and replace it with an exit assessment.

“That exit assessment will be focused on whether they have met the national performance standards that say they have satisfactorily completed the primary school programme,” Denny explained.

“If they have not, then there is a profile that is going to go with them as they transition that says this is what this child has achieved and the school at the next level will know that it has to address those students before they can be moved to the next level of programming.”

Denny proposed that students get an additional two years in school, if needed.

“If you are at the bottom of the continuum, it means that since you are assured a further two years, your teachers can focus on giving you smaller chunks that are more manageable for you, and in the course of that period with that extra two years you are going to be able to achieve some level of certification,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw stressed there must be alternative pathways for students who are prone to fall through the cracks.

She noted that Barbados must move beyond the exam-driven society to help children discover their true potential, and teachers must be trained to identify certain deficits in students. (SD)