Pressing questions on education

THE EDITOR, Sir:

AS A soon-to-be-grandfather looking on at the education system, a number of questions come to mind i n relation to efficiencies and cost-effectiveness. 1) Why the ongoing changes to pre-high-school testing? GSAT now out, PEP in. For how long? 2) Why change the high-school

curriculum each year?

3) Why are required textbooks changed each year with the curriculum? Gone are the days when one set of books could be passed from child to child within the same household.

4) Several of the new textbooks required each year are never referred to by teachers and are not used by the child. 5) When will a national GOJfunded breakfast and lunch programme be reinstated in all basic and primar y schools? A child that is well fed (in the formative years) will have a mind that is learning-receptive.

6) How useful, in fact, are the numerous homework (project) assignments given to primary-school children, the parents of whom then have to build the item or outsource its construction at a cost?

7) How is it that children of school age are cleaning windscreens at traffic lights or sitting on street corners smoking ganja in full view of policemen? Isn’t education compulsory up to a certain age? What of the truancy laws/regulations?

8) How do we return to a balanced approach to education, with a focus on teaching and learning that results in the acquisition of k nowledge, sk ills, values, beliefs and habits that are truly foundational? DONALD PATTERSON pattersondon@cwjamaica.com