Dear Editor,
It is good to hear that the Minister of Education has seen the wisdom of the futility of allowing students to write large number of CXC subjects, and the scourge of extra lessons and the burden of paying for same.
I would also add an area that the Minister needs to address, and that is the burden of having children being assessed nationally at levels Two and Four. I need to state too that there are some schools where some teachers are encouraging parents to allow their nursery and grade one children to take extra lessons. Some parents are doing so and expect too much of their children.
They send their children to private schools and some of those schools allow teachers to give and charge for extra classes.
With the proliferation of additional subjects on the timetables, and core subjects vying for adequate periods during the twenty-five contact hours per week, it is advisable for state schools to be run for thirty contact hours.
This will assist in eliminating the need for extra lessons for a fee. It will allow for more space on timetables and the curriculum will be covered with a more comfortable arrangement. It needs no genius to tell you that if adequate teaching is delivered by teachers in schools then the curriculum can be completed within the academic year.
Our education planners need to be visionaries so that our education system can be effectively managed and not allow every Tom, Dick and Harry to open a bottom-house school and spoil our children.
I rightly believe that passing an examination alone does not make someone educated. An educated person is able to socialize, be patriotic and tolerant, in addition to boasting academic achievement.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
