The policy of the minister of education to evaluate educators in the elementary school system is an important move to support the academic development of students. The education process should aim at 100 per cent student-body success in achievement - not only the best students. The performance evaluation should include refresher courses and licence to teach, and also apply to secondary and tertiary institutions. Teaching methods should be current with modern technology and textbooks.

During the 1970s, while attending a technical high school in St Andrew, I noticed this deficiency. Some of the textbooks I started with in the first year were ones I had already used in elementary school, especially the Spanish book. In the first three years at that school I was taught the same level of Spanish as I was in primary school. However, I could not read a newspaper written in Spanish. Every school year, the teacher returned from a different Latin American country without any new teaching material. I was so embarrassed once writing to a friend visiting Cuba, to be told I wrote antique Spanish.

At that time, I had penfriends all over the world and one of them was from Denmark who understood little English, but was fluent in other languages including Spanish. We communicated in my limited Spanish and he taught me additional words.

After all these years, the education system in Jamaica has not demonstrated significant improvement - in comparison to developed countries. Being poor does not stop a child from learning. It is the learning environment, teaching method and access to tools and information that is crucial to academic development and overall intelligence.

In the first terms of my school years, the teacher's introduction was to have a goal and aim for it. In the same way, the principal should have a goal for the students of his school and aim for it by preparing a realistic curriculum and ensuring that he selects the appropriate staff and the tools for them to perform. The responsibility is always the head of household's.

I am, etc.,

ALTHEA POWELL-WHYTE

whyteh@aol.com

Bloomfield, CT

USA