Education, plants and politics

Education for all

DR Subhash Appanna wrote (FT 16/3): “How can a student who has failed to master the content of learning at Class 1 cope with the more demanding requirements set at Class 2?”

The assumption here is that in Year 2, the student will not be taught at her/his level of achievement. Teachers are called, not to teach content, but to teach children. These children have individual characteristics and needs.

A classroom situation requires teachers to know just how child’s ability and her/his levels of achievement in content and skills.

About 100 years ago Lev Vygotzky showed that the teacher must present content and skills that are just a little beyond the child’s reach (the Zone of Proximal Development), but can be achieved with the help of the teacher (known as the More Knowledgeable Other). This is particularly important for those at the extreme ends of the learning spectrum: the intellectually handicapped child and the genius child.

In every classroom there will be children with a spectrum of learning skills that require a corresponding spectrum of content. Therefore the curriculum of knowledge and skills for each year must take account of a range of levels of ability and achievement. One size does not fit all. In Wellington in 1957 I learned that my class of 65 nine year olds must be divided into five streams or levels for learning reading skills. Some who were fast learners helped the slower ones, and they all made progress in literacy.

A child in Year Two, who has not received appropriate teaching in literacy will not advance further because he or she will not be able to read the material presented.

In Suva, Marist Champagnat Institute receives Year 8 students who are not able to read a simple sentence or write the letters of the alphabet in order. They missed out on proper teaching in Year 1 and 2, and were not taught at their own level in the following years. Classes that are too large (more than 30) make the teacher’s task difficult, but not impossible. FERGUS GARRETT

Marist Brothers, Vatuwaqa