The Editor, Sir:

We need to rethink our philosophy of education, if we have one at all. I believe that at the bottom of our problems in education is the fact that we have never really tried to develop a generic school system. I would suggest that the following approach to transformation is what we need.

Zone the high school system in the most demographically suitable manner. There should be a definite limit to the distances that students live from the schools they attend.

Establish a common 'cut off' point for all schools, based on GSAT results.

Do away with the GSAT Scholarship or at least change the way it is awarded. I would suggest that we reduce the amount given to each student and give a GSAT Exhibition Grant to the top boy and top girl entering each high school. In other words, zone the scholarships as well.

When the schools are zoned, introduce after-school prep, organised in a manner similar to what is done in the boarding schools. Give teachers some flexitime, such as a morning off, or afternoon off and require that they have days when they remain at school up to 6 p.m. to supervise older students in preparation for exams.

The school year should begin earlier, from about the third week in August. This could be introduced gradually, by restricting it to first, fourth and fifth forms to begin with.

Establish a parent register for each class and require that parents pay a pre-determined number of visits to the relevant teachers. Visits to the homes by teachers, as is done in Japan, could eventually be required.

Revise the way in which teachers receive their increments. Instead of giving it every year automatically, give the equivalent of a two-year increment every two years after the teacher has been properly assessed, internally with an external moderator. However, any assessment of teachers must be done on the job. Student assessment is also a great help. What must be avoided at all cost, is any scheme to pay teachers based on the performance of students in exams, including those that involve some hare-brained idea about value-added.

The recently introduced impromptu visits from education officers to the schools is a very good step in the right direction. It has, I think, made a difference in feeling the presence of the ministry of education looking over your shoulder.

There should also be internal exams for teachers about every five years to ensure that they keep up their knowledge base.

Cut out the recruiting of students from outside the zone to play various sports for schools.

Introduce Dr Ralph Thompson's suggestion that, all students do a core of six compulsory subjects at the CSEC Level. I would suggest that, along with Math, English, and Information Technology, they should do a foreign language, a lab science and a practical or technical subject. A CSEC certificate should be given to those who successfully complete the core subjects, even if one or two are at the grade four level.

As suggested by Dr Dennis Mignott, make available to parents (or even publish on a web page) the panel reports done by the ministry of education on various schools.

In the longer term, I would like to see child psychology and thinking skills as compulsory subjects at the high school level. All students will almost certainly become parents later in life.

To symbolise this transformation, I would introduce a national high school uniform; put all our children in black, green and gold and send them to school near to their homes.

We must redefine what we call a good school. It cannot be that we call a school good, merely because it gets good results from good students. Good schools must be able to deal with the widest range of students and maximise their potential. The only high schools in Jamaica that seem to follow this philosophy are the comprehensive high schools. Yet these are the schools that we look down on as being inferior.

All schools should operate on the assumption that the slowest child has as much right to educational opportunity as does the potential Jamaica Scholar.

R. HOWARD THOMPSON

roi_anne@hotmail.com

c/o Munro College,

St Elizabeth