Extra lessons cannot be stopped

Dear Editor,

I refer to Stabroek News’s article titled ‘Roopnaraine takes aim at extra lessons’ published on the 7th June. It is impossible for extra lessons to be stopped for the following reasons:

1.  In the first place it is because of a poor supervisory model which is employed by the Ministry of Education. This model depends on teachers reporting on teachers. The head of department reports to the deputy head teacher who reports to the head teacher who reports to the district education officer. How likely is it that teachers will always report on colleagues? Has any teacher ever been dismissed for deliberately omitting the curriculum in school in order to teach it at lessons? We know this is happening. What does it say about the supervisory process?
2. The Ministry of Education, in an effort to get value for education, has made teachers into clerks. That is, teachers are required to prepare at least ten records before they even teach a class. Often, teachers prepare these records during instruction time and consequently classes are not taught, hence the need for lessons.
3. The Ministry of Education allows every NGO to go into schools during instructional time to represent their cause. Time is lost and lessons become a necessity.
4. The Ministry of Education has instituted national standardized exams in Grades 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10. One of the consequences of so many standardized exams is lessons. If you have an exam then parents are going to do all they can so that their children can pass. They are going to send their children to lessons. It was after the introduction of these exams that Grades 2 and 4 began having widespread lesson classes.
5. Primary school teachers are required to teach English, Maths, Science and Social Studies. Many teachers in the primary schools do not have a mastery of all four subjects. As such they do a poor job teaching those they are poor in, which results in poor student achievement. Hence, the child attends lessons to improve in that subject area.
6. Parents believe that a child can only pass in school if he or she is attending lessons. This is evident in the fact that academically weak students and academically strong students attend lessons.
7. Teachers deliberately omit portions of the syllabus so that their lessons can thrive. A good example is that the core areas are taught in Mathematics but the optional areas are reserved for lessons. Another example is that teachers lure students into extra lessons by offering to work past CSEC papers.
8. For non-academic reasons, some parents do not have confidence in some teachers and as a result will send their children to lessons to cushion the teacher’s supposed incompetence.
9. Some parents send their children to lessons so that they can be brighter than the other students in the class. Many Grade 10 secondary school students take Grade 11 Mathematics and English lessons so that they can sit these subjects in Grade 10.
10. School-based assessments are a pull factor for lessons. Some teachers compel students to attend lessons because they do or redo SBAs at the lessons. Fear of failure cause students to attend these lessons.
11. Some schools do not have teachers for vital subject areas. As a result, the student’s only hope of passing is to attend lessons.
12. Students, especially secondary students, enjoy the thrill and sport of attending lessons, moreso if some amount of travelling is required. Hence, they demand that parents send them to extra lessons.
13. For many students, especially those in the lower secondary schools, lessons provide an alternative to studying: sitting down with the textbooks and notebooks and working questions and reading notes. Many students believe that you do not have to do this if you attend a lesson. It is for this reason that every Grade 11 student attends Maths lessons yet less than a third pass.
14. Teacher and student absenteeism and lateness hinder the progress of teaching the curriculum. To compensate for this, students attend lessons. The irony is that students and teachers are regularly late to school, but they are never late for lessons.
15. The poor salary which teachers receive is the major factor which pushes teachers to arrange lessons. No increase in salary can negate the infinite income obtainable from extra lessons.
16. The more failures there are in subjects such as Mathematics and English then the greater the demand for lessons will be.
17. Some students opt to enter for more subjects than their school is doing. Hence, they have to attend extra lessons to do the subject since they cannot do it in school.
18. Some schools have inadequately timetabled some subjects. As a result, the syllabus cannot be completed during normal school hours. Few schools follow the period allocation outlined by the Ministry of Education or the Caribbean Examination Council. Again, lessons are not a luxury but a necessity.
19. There is no national policy on remediation. The schools teach and then test. There is no re-teaching after the testing. Consequently, students who fail cannot demand any help from the school. The student must seek help from extra lessons.
20. The copycat syndrome also permeates the lessons culture. When students of Stewartville Secondary School (or any low-achieving school) see Queen’s College students attending lessons, they too will want to attend believing it is a recipe for success.
21. Some students attend lessons because they simply do not like the class teacher, often for some very significant reason.
22. Many parents are disenchanted with the public school system but cannot afford to send their ward to a private school. Lessons are seen as the next best thing.
23. Sociologically, lessons will continue to thrive because many parents feel providing the money for lessons absolves them from the errors they make as parents.
24. Finally, few if any, public schools offer differentiated instructions to suit the needs of the learners. Lessons are seen as satisfying this function which is not necessarily the case.

Dr Roopnaraine cannot reverse all these factors to favour the total elimination of lessons. What he needs to do is restructure the system of supervision so as to ensure that all aspects of the curriculum are completed in the designated time in school. This simple feat is a Herculean task. The education sector in Guyana has four major stakeholders: the Ministry of Education, the teacher, the parent and the student. Apart from the Ministry of Education, the other three stakeholders want and support lessons. How can they be stopped? They can’t. They will not be. Unfortunately!

Yours faithfully,

Mohammed Saddam Hussain