We, too, like a positive, uplifting story, such as the the one that was peddled last week by the education ministry about the performance of some of the so-called non-traditional high schools in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams.

Except that Robert Wynter, who follows these things closely, has pulled away the façade to expose the farce, for which we hope that the bureaucrats at National Heroes Circle are deeply embarrassed, if, indeed, they possess the capacity for shame - which we have come to doubt.

In this there is a simple, obvious lesson which officialdom too often seems to forget, or chooses to ignore. It makes little sense, this attempt at the manufacturing of good news when what is produced is tinsel, or, in this case, the undermining of credibility.

The issue of contention is last week's statement by the education ministry to the effect that while as a group they continue to lag behind their established counterparts, individual non-traditional high schools performed better than the older high schools. The ministry singled out four star-performing non-traditionals: Old Harbour High, Jonathan Grant High, Denbigh High and Lewisville High. In these schools, it reported, the pass rate for subjects entered was over 70 per cent.

Traditional high schools

Moreover, "approximately 50 per cent of the passes were grades one and two - better than the 28 per cent of traditional high schools".

Of course, this newspaper has so often highlighted education in Jamaica to be in a bad way, with overall pass rates at the CSEC of under 50 per cent. Indeed, no more than 20 per cent of the students who complete secondary schooling have the requirements for immediate matriculation to tertiary education. Many more than a few are near illiterate. The problem is worse in those high schools upgraded as part of the effort to widen access to education, but without ensuring an evenness of quality. Most people, therefore, would be happy at the success or even small gains in the education system generally, but especially in those schools with the deepest problems.

Indeed, it is hardly surprising that very few people looked behind the data offered by the education ministry, until Mr Wynter exposed the sleight of hand by the bureaucrats.

Eligible students

As it turns out, the education ministry's CSEC pass numbers were not based on the entire grade-11 cohort for the four non-traditional high schools; only those who were entered for the exam. Indeed, of the 1,295 students of the age cohort in the four schools who ought to have been eligible for maths and English at CSEC this year, only 573, or 44.24 per cent actually sat the exams. In other words, nearly 56 per cent of the eligible students were 'screened out' - a common practice of Jamaican high schools - not only non-traditionals - aimed at ensuring the best possible pass rates.

The four schools mentioned by the education ministry this year might even be worth lauding, mea-sured against past performance. But we won't really improve in the absence of the unvarnished truth.

Indeed, we can do no better than Mr Wynter's advice: "It is time the Ministry of Education stop this nonsense and let us have real information with which we can make informed decisions."

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