Teacher on quest to create change

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ay uan ore “I natry ng people, that I was able to pave a way for them,” she said.

She mentioned one of several of the things she would want to change should she become a policy maker. “My top priority is to do away with the ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy, where the child is not required to pass but we put them over to the other level. That is putting them at a great disadvantage. It tells the child that they do not need to work to achieve anything and that is not true. Children have developed this [lax] approach to education because they know, study or not, they are going to be promoted. It is the same attitude they are going to apply in their daily lives, they are not going to push for anything. If a child knows that if they do not perform in primary one [grade 3], they will not be given a place in primary two [grade 4] they are going to work. No child is going to want another child from a lower grade come the next school year to be in the same class with them and that will be a motivating factor for them to work harder. Look at our society. Everyone is trying to get things the easy way and that is because that is what we are teaching them. Do you know what is hurtful as a teacher? To see that a child is not required to pass their subjects to be promoted to another class then when they get to CSEC classes all the work is left on the CSEC teachers to get the child to pass. It is frustrating. When you have a child reaching to form four (grade 10) and they can’t do basic math, and cannot read and comprehend, what can the CSEC teacher do at that level? If this was rectified from the beginning, we would not have to go to all the trouble of teaching them what they should have known already and we’d have better performers at CSEC,” she argued.

Lanferman-Duncan added that some parents also have a lax attitude. She gave an example of this by pointing out that while the school already has trophies prepared to give to their students who have worked, parents who do not want their child to be left out although they have not done the required work present them with trophies also. LanfermanDuncan questioned, “What are you awarding them for?”

“The best part of teaching is seeing my children, years after finishing school, doing something positive with their lives.

Even while they are in school, I’m happy even when it’s just one little step up than where they were. I feel that sense of satisfaction,” she added.