Elgin Taylor, Star Writer

It is common knowledge among educators that there is a dilemma at the Grade Seven stage of the secondary school system, especially in respect to upgraded high schools.

The humungous cry coming from these institutions is that they are being given baskets to carry water. They are sent the worst of the crop of students by way of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

One principal of such a school revealed that 80 per cent of the students that she gets from the GSAT system on a yearly basis cannot read. She went on to state that a number of them are unable to recognise letters of the alphabet.

Obviously, something needs to be done at the lower echelon of the system if we are to effectively arrest this problem. By this I mean the early childhood sector, which comprises basic and infant schools, and Grades One and Two of primary schools.

The teachers' union, (the Jamaica Teachers' Association) has been calling for this intervention repeatedly for more than two decades.

The political parties too have lately come on board and glibly made promises of additional resources to strengthen the early childhood phase of the education system. However, very little has been done and the problem remains an imposing one.

Strapped for cash

It is a known fact that the country is experiencing severe financial hardship. However, there is the need to prioritise and to make the best of what already exists.

This also means having basic schools reclassified as infant institutions which would ensure a salary for the teachers from the education ministry. This also carries with it the possibility of enticing these educators to remain in the system.

The individual school can also strengthen reading at this grade level by effectively deploying the teaching staff. There is also the question of the authorities providing at least one reading teacher for this grade.

Foolhardy

Over the years there have been suggestions, and even attempts, to place at these high schools a few students with 'decent' GSAT grades.

However, as expected, this has elicited a howl of protest from the parents. It is foolhardy of administrators and policymakers to think that parents would feel comfortable to have their children, who gained GSAT averages of 70 and 80 per cent, being placed at struggling upgraded high schools.

From the foregoing, it is clear that administrators and policy- makers have to tackle this problem both at the early childhood level and at the class level, but moreso at the former.

It has been said that one has to learn to creep before one can walk. At the rate that this creeping early childhood education reform is going, it will probably die of old age before it learns to walk.

Questions, comments, observations? You can email me at elgin1225@yahoo.co.uk.