The Editor, Sir:

I refer to your story (15/04/08) in which Christopher Zacca, president PSOJ, is blaming the poor performance of students in CSEC exams on the management of schools and teacher training.

As a visitor to your beautiful country I taught business-related subjects at a rural school for three years (1995/98). In the 1998 academic year, 14 of my 20 students passed the principles of business exam with a good number also passing office procedures, typing and accounts. This was achieved without 'extra lessons for J$50'.

During my tenure, I was amazed to find many teachers running after-school lessons, charging students J$50/lesson, the threat being that if students didn't attend they had no hope of passing their exams! I witnessed the most hard-up families struggling to pay the extra J$50 per lesson, but pay they did in the belief that students were getting a better chance at success.

'I believe'

My students asked me when my extra lessons were going to be, but I told them that "if I did my job properly and they also did theirs they would succeed". I refused to run extra lessons because I believed in myself and in my students' abilities.

Other teachers were offended by my stance but I persisted, and succeeded. In the same academic year only one student passed the CXC English exam and only one passed CXC mathematics, all the while having attended extra lessons …

Teachers are not committed

I write this message to illustrate the point that Christopher Zacca makes; poor performance in exams (certainly in the rural school that I taught at) can be linked to the poor performance of teachers who are not committed to doing an effective job during normal school hours yet, come the home-time bell, think they can become super-effective just because they are charging money for extra lessons.

Principals claiming their institutions are given students who are at the bottom of the scale are seemingly confused. It is the money-grabbing poor performing uncommitted teachers that are from the bottom of the scale. Students are simply products of the teaching (real teaching) that they receive.

More power to the honest principal that has the guts to weed out the uncommitted teachers.

With respect for rural schools and "bottom of the scale students".

I am, etc.,

HARAMBE

sjb.harambe@tiscali.co.uk

Paris, France

Via Go-Jamaica