Dear Editor,
The pronouncement recently by the Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council, as carried by the media, has echoed what many Guyanese, including yours truly, have been openly lamenting over several years. His words: “Every country…is educating people…not to see how many get grade one at the CXC examination or how many people have degrees…” should hammer home a very sad reality in our education system, particularly at the secondary level, to wit: the emphasis is more on quantity than on quality.
At the CXC level SBAs [school based assessment] which, I think, can earn a student up to 40 marks are compromised. I was once assured that any compromise could be spotted. Notwithstanding such assurance, I would suggest that a deeper investigation be done of the many places which offer “SBA services”.
That having been said, the emphasis of this contribution is to attract thinking by CXC headquarters and our educators on the proposal that mechanisms be put in place for CXC students, in their third year, to be attached to workplaces for a period of three months. This would allow for students to get a glimpse of what happens in the world of work and to temper their expectations that 14 subjects guarantee them a red carpet entry to a job. This three-month attachment can replace the SBA and earn a student a maximum of 25 marks. It is my view that when they write the CXC in the fourth year, they would do so after a reality check.
I have had years of experience as an employer and I have interviewed hundreds of graduates of secondary school and university, many of whom, when put to the test, belittle the certificates they present.
Because our young academics, technical and otherwise, are crucial to national development, what our education system produces must resonate with the needs of the nation. Anything less is an indictment of our education system and would justify the continuing contracting of ‘experienced persons’ who may well prefer to enjoy their retirement away from active duty.
Stop making parents go broke to have to find huge sums of money so that their children can write an inordinate number of CXC subjects.
Notice how many subjects are required for employment or entry into university? Twenty? Wrong!
Yours faithfully,
Taajnauth Jadunauth