The Editor, Sir:

As a teacher and parent, I am deeply appreciative of the recent initiatives taken by the Government in order to improve education throughout Jamaica. In particular, I thank Minister Holness for his ministry's increasing contributions to secondary education and for his efforts to establish centres of excellence while curbing violence in our schools.

However, I am greatly concerned that we continue to subject our children to the rigours of preparing for the Grade Six Achievement Test, i.e. the GSAT.

I contend that although the syllabus itself is generally well-written, it is too expansive - especially when it comes to social studies and science. In fact, often due to the time constraints posed by the breadth of information teachers must cover, they ignore the lively, interesting activities suggested by the syllabus and focus on what I call "drill and grill" classroom techniques. One parent I know has likened her child's sixth grade classroom this year to a "Gestapo Camp".

I know of many current cases in which children are made to forego extra-curricular activities in order to attend extra lessons in the evenings and on weekends - the times when they so badly need to relax and socialise with family and friends.

Eager to learn

As a teacher-trainer and mother of two - an eight and an 11-year-old, I have spent a great deal of time in Jamaican classrooms. I have noticed how talented and eager to learn our children are whenever they are presented with interesting material by a thoughtful educator. Why then do we persist in subjecting them to an exam which has come to symbolise anxiety, self-doubt and undue stress?

Yes, I am aware that the exam itself is really quite doable by most well-taught primary school students, but it is the preparation process which I feel is so detrimental. Owing to the fact that there are probably only about 20 high schools islandwide to which parents feel entirely comfortable sending their children, the pressure to produce students who receive 90-100% is extreme. As you may already know, the GSAT is now no longer an achievement test. It is quite simply a selection of the 'brightest' children, (if by bright we mean able to regurgitate correctly the greatest number of answers in a specified time), in order to place them in the 'best' high schools. When a child doesn't score in the 90s it is virtually impossible for him/her to attend the high school of his/her choice. Consequently, we have hundreds of bright children who do very well in the GSAT - i.e. receive scores between the 70s and 80s, yet feel like utter failures. (Let us remember that in many tertiary institutions 80 per cent is considered an A.)

At this point I would like to state what many have said before me: we need more Jamaican high schools of quality. Yes, I believe our Minister of Education is doing his best to bring this about. But in the meantime how can we lessen this burden placed so unfairly on our sixth graders' shoulders?

Suggestions

1) Review and reduce the current social studies and science syllabuses. (Some topics are taught again and again in seventh and eighth grades. Our fifth and sixth graders don't have to study them so soon!)

2) Rather than examining the students in all four subjects, examine only two: mathematics and English. For science and social studies, take a cumulative score for the year, prepared and submitted to the exam board by their schools.

3) Continue working towards improving the quality of high schools so that we can eliminate the GSAT altogether. Many developed countries have no such test for such young children.

I am eager and ready to help bring about any of the above suggestions. I have also been pursuing my doctoral studies with a view to showing how detrimental exam stress is to such young children and to their love of learning.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who would like to help me bring about this process of reform.

I am, etc.,

TAINA LOWE WILLIAMS

tainaw@cwjamaica.com