RAJENDRA SEWPERSADSING
Each time there is a change in government, the education system, more particularly the one put in place for pupils who could not make it at the CPE or PSAC exams, also undergoes changes. But, this time, the changes are highly recommended, and long awaited too. The Extended Programme (EP) of the previous government had done too much harm to our students. I had warned the ministry of its obvious failure, but the ex-Minister of Education did not listen to others’ views.
The new Minister of Education, Mr Mahend Gungapersad, has acted promptly. He puts an end to the EP and introduces a new programme, the Foundational Programme (FP). To come up with the new FP within such a short time is highly commendable and praiseworthy. However, what is being proposed, in my opinion, is too “light”. I would, through this article, come forward with some suggestions, which I hope, will reach the attention of the Minister.
- Year 1
More emphasis on numeracy and literacy is a must; those students have great deficiencies. I suggest that the numeracy and literacy content be geared towards attaining the essential learning competencies in the PSAC syllabus. At the end of the school year, all the students are made to sit for the PSAC a second time. A 15% pass from each school should be the target and all necessary support and incentives (for the school and the teachers) need to be provided by the ministry to achieve that 15% pass. Those students who succeed will be promoted to the mainstream. And, those who cannot make it at their second trial, will gain much in terms of numeracy and literacy.
- Year 2 and Year 3
It is proposed to have the Year 2 students moving to an MITD centre once per week whereas the Year 3 students twice per week. This “dual mode” had been tried in previous years but had faced many drawbacks. The main problem is the number of MITD centres available to accommodate the FP students. There are some 2000 FP students and there is only some eight MITD centres, one in each district. Therefore, the students will have to travel long distances to attend to the MITD centre, resulting in many students absenting themselves on those one or two days. Moreover, the trades offered at the MITD centres are less girl-friendly, hence many dropouts among girls. Controlling the attendance of students was yet another problem.
I suggest that schools should identify dedicated FP educators (the ex-PV educators); and those educators are empowered with adequate knowledge and skills to be able to teach in their respective schools, what is to be taught to the FP students in the MITD centres. I am sure, the MIE in collaboration with the MITD can easily mount a 3-month course (trade-wise) for the FP educators. The FP educators should be made polyvalent and should be remunerated accordingly. The FP students, then need not move to MITD centres. And, the MITD centres can be freed to accommodate more of trainees for NC2 and NC3.
Moreover, the FP classrooms should be converted into a mini workshop with the provision of basic tools and equipment for the acquisition of the different skills in the different trades. The FP students learn differently; they do not like academic teaching; they prefer practical work. The ministry has to invest for the purchase of those light tools and equipment for each secondary school running FP classes. Everything has a cost; the ministry should find the necessary funds.
- Evaluation
The FP programme has no summative evaluation; no examination. Then how to evaluate the performance of the students, how to evaluate the success of the programme? I am afraid, with no examination lesson, delivery will be very light in the classroom. Teachers will have no result to produce; already the teachers are blaming the students for their indiscipline, inattention and poor performance, saying that the students are null and worthless. I suggest that there should be formative as well as summative evaluations to assess the performance of the students and to record their individual progress. Those evaluations can be practical and oral, if written tests and exams are too demanding for them. By the way, evaluation forms part of the school curriculum and the FP students should not be treated differently.
- Training of Educators
The MIE is the only body to provide training to educators. And, each time the ministry calls upon the MIE to run training courses for specific groups of educators. I am afraid, the training provided by the MIE, particularly to EP educators, was far from the target. It is the opinion of many educators equally. I had surveyed the EP educators and most of them have great difficulty in teaching students with big learning disabilities and students with acute behaviour problems. So, I suggest that the training courses should cater for those difficulties of educators. The educators should be equipped with the necessary skills and attitude to face the FP students and to help them in their learning. Those students require a completely different pedagogy. I allow myself to further suggest that PGCE and B.Ed courses run by the MIE should contain two modules: (i) teaching students with big learning difficulties (ii) teaching students with acute behaviour problems.
- Textbooks
Here, I find a very big paradox. The MIE was given the responsibility to write textbooks for the prevocational stream. Then came the Extended Programme. The same MIE found the PV textbooks were no longer good for that same category of students and produced new textbooks for the EP students. Now comes the Foundation Programme. The same MIE will write new textbooks for that same category of students with same learning difficulties in numeracy and literacy. Will there be an end to this inconsistency?
As Inspector (prevocational) I wrote many papers, considered as eye-opener to the ministry. On the verge of my retirement, I produced a report on the Extended Programme alerting the ministry of the eventual failure of the programme. Unfortunately, my warning was not given due attention and the outcome is now known. This article is yet another paper to share my experience and contribute somehow in the setting up of a good education system to the benefit of each and every student of this country.