The Editor, Sir:

Regarding 'Exams not the mark' - Expert says student behaviour better grade for teacher, school performance' (Gleaner, February 5), and with due respect to Dr Trevor Hamilton (international consultant) and Robert Wynter, students performance have fallen to a low, so trying to find excuses to drop the bar lower by saying if you came in dumb and can read, then that is success is not good enough for Jamaica.

Examination results, together with recommendation of behaviour, are signposts to scholarship, higher learning institutions, job placement and job training.

Performance the main benchmark

When a child enters school, he/she is like a 'blank slate to write on', and if reading is the achievement we need at the end of that process, why not focus more on trade schools?

Coming in dumb and being able to read should not be our benchmark because schooling in Jamaica is a long process and one does not enter as an adult. That kind of thinking as measurement of success should be left to literacy programmes where the goal is to assist those who 'fell by the way side'.

There are many successful persons with one CXC subject, but are they the majority? Performance in examination, for now, is the main benchmark to measure students output, and while it can be argued that success in examination does not equal success in life, this is the signpost available for a country with limited financial resources.

Dr Hamilton's higher learning is what has afforded him the opportunity to be able to argue this troubled subject. Since he can be considered successful in his field, how would he measure the value for money? At what point will you measure and discover the students' deficiencies?

A student moving from one grade to the other with education disabilities cannot be judged at the CXC level, then placing the blame on the CXC teachers' failure. The failure may have started from first form when command of the language might have been the deficiency. This deficiency created a multiplier effect in every other area of learning as comprehending was a disability.

Correcting the problems

Teachers' performance should be measured, however, as there are many non-performers in the classroom. For example, I had the opportunity of looking at a student's workbook (fourth form) and was shocked at what the teacher gave a 'tick'. The paper was written using the same street talk one would find when friends on a street corner are conversing. The grade was a C+, with no explanation, no corrective measures and a 'tick' indicating acceptance of the shortfall in the student's work.

Maybe the teacher is overwhelmed by the number of students, with no time to concentrate on the student, or a number of other reasons too numerous to mention here. However, in the end the student suffers the consequences.

The president of the JTA is correct, there should be no setting of more than one standard. Many standards would reinforce the uneven playing field - an argument presented by president of the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice-Principals of Secondary Schools.

The educators, together with other sectors of the Government and Opposition, need to fix the problems, which are many, before we can see results in the schools. The result of school performance is one link in a defective chain.

I am, etc.,

N. DAYES

ndayes2002@yahoo.com

Kingston