The Editor, Sir:I have read with interest and increasing concern the articles and related comments regarding the 2009 GSAT results. May I humbly offer a few suggestions that, hopefully, may improve performance before the usual learned educators do their analyses.
With due regard to quality, invest in infrastructure to increase, in the short run, the enrolment in the traditional schools to at least equal the intake in the primary and junior highs. Two additional classes at 30 prominent high schools equal 40 students x 2 classes x 30 schools i.e. 2,400 traditional high school places. Remove the imperative of having a teacher's certificate to become an education officer or principal. Having leadership skills (principal) and a performance template (education officer) should be the minimum re-quirement. If I may take some liberty, to have extensive ex-perience in a failing organisation should be a minus to gain leadership positions. On a test basis, in order to improve the status of certain non-traditional schools and to assess teachers and principals, send a cohort of students with 80s or 90s grade to a non-traditional or new high school for five years. A discussion with Juliet Wilson, the vice principal at my alma mater, Kingston College (KC), revealed that students usually maintain their GSAT grades, whether high or low, through their school life.Over time, this ought to reduce the non-traditional school stigma, as all the parents and hopefully the students attending the non-traditional high schools know that their first-form classmates have high GSAT grades.
May I suggest using as a "guinea pig" Holy Trinity High in the Corporate Area, utilising the teaching resources of KC, St George's, Alpha, St Hugh's and Wolmer's within the vicinity. Within five years, I bet that Holy Trinity would be performing as well as a traditional high school.
Compare the GSAT grade and the school grade as an indication of performance of teachers and students. Then create a database using Microsoft Excel to record student grades entering high school (GSAT as the base grade) and then track their performance throughout their school life.This information could then be used to target failing schools, assess teachers' and principals' leadership and intervention skills.
Utilise the summer months for remedial lessons for failing students. This should not be costly as teachers are already paid for this period. Make attendance to PTA mandatory and offer a rebate on PTA fees for 90-100 per cent attendance. Consider this question: What would occur if 35,000 of the 40,000 GSAT students obtained 90s average? Problem solved!I am, etc.,
CHRIS HARE
harechris@yahoo.com