Further vocational training has been recommended for 50 students who are leaving the Canje Secondary School without Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) qualifications.
The students are part of the Secondary Competency Certificate (SCC) Programme, which the Ministry of Education says was developed to improve attendance, reduce the number dropouts, enhance quality and shore up equity and relevance in the areas of technical and vocational education at Grade 9 and Grade 10 levels.
“The competency-based modularized programme is designed with strong emphasis being placed on what students can do in the work place and after completion of training,” the ministry says on its website.
Students receive a certificate at the end of the programme and are advised to attend a government tertiary institution.
Zamal Hussain, who heads the Education Committee of the Region Six administration, confirmed to Stabroek News that in order for the students to attend a technical institution, they will have to sit the entrance examination.
“This enables them to be certified at the end of the programme, whereby they will not be writing CXC, but will be going to the tertiary level of education, which is the technical institute,” he explained. He added that the technical institutes will help the students to further develop what they have learnt within the SCC programme.
However, during a recent statutory meeting, Hussain recommended that additional vocational training be provided for the students before they enter the next phase. “Personally, I think more emphasis should be placed on the students to ensure that they be given the opportunity to write the CXC examination, so when they leave school they are very much equipped without having to go to a technical institute,” he said. “I think this is not fair for them,” he added.
Hussain stated that the programme needs to be revised so as to ensure that all students write the CSEC exams.
