The ten of us retired professionals, octogenarians and nonagenarians get first-hand information from our children and grandchildren. They tell us what is happening with this PLASTIC GENERATION of which they are a part. We see the painful results of what we call now the ‘Half-Day-Schoolers’, and we groan as we watch thousands of Jamaican children leave school without being able to read and write.
We make the following suggestions to the Minister of Education who is doing a first-class job.
1. School hours to be the same in all schools above the Infant School level. The timetable table to be the same in all PRIMARY SCHOOLS. Children to leave Primary school at the same dismissal time.
2. All Teachers in all schools must be trained. There are too many untrained teachers in the classroom at this time. Examples can be proven today, where teachers put on the chalkboard ‘OF’ for ‘HAVE’, ‘OR’ for ‘ARE’ and ‘LEDDA’ For ‘LADDER’. This is scandalous. We have to take all untrained teachers out of the classroom. Principals must be penalized when they employ untrained relatives and friends.
3. Bring back the old and tried books like ‘First Aid in English’ and use the old proverbs to help maintain discipline, obedience, order, tidiness and old-fashioned teaching to read by phonetics.
This is an emergency.
4. Give RISK PAY to trained, qualified teachers who work in rural areas under primitive conditions; where they still use pit toilets and the water supply is extremely limited. Give RISK PAY to trained teachers who work in volatile areas.
5. We must provide a school bus service, especially for rural schools. The diaspora will help us.
6. Recall all able-bodied teachers to deal with the reading and comprehension problems, the numerical problems, the behavioural problems. These old experienced trained teachers will teach them to respect time and the rules and regulations of their country.
The school is not a democracy.
These hundreds of ‘Half-Day-Schoolers’ entrusted on us by a Plastic Generation who call a plastic container, a ‘Dish’, need to be educated
We have to make sure these trees grow roots.
Contributor Veronica Blake -Carnegie
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Sound suggestions except that many of these old retired teachers don't have the energy. Willing hearts but wi tiad
ReplyDeleteSo true😁
ReplyDeleteA great read. Yes her suggestions are urgent.
ReplyDeleteSome suggestions are excellent. The one about only trained teachers in the schools where will they be coming from?
DeleteDoes it make sense to make the local dialect compulsory teaching in schools as some are pushing.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be prudent to make another universal language globally spoken compulsory like say mandarin spoken by over 1.5 billion people added to English spoken by 2.5 billion people.Now you would cover half of the 8 billion on the planet then Spanish and French.
By the way English should be taught like a foreign language for better results.
I still cannot wrap my mind around more than 40% of primary children graduate as illiterates.
Is it the teaching method is wanting or those children have mental or other disabilities that affect learning or the teachers methods are ill equipped or needs revamping.
Can someone remind me of how much we spend on a primary school child per annum.
ReplyDeleteI know we spend on average the equivalent of US$10,000 per annum on each prisoner serving time in our 11 penal institutions and one remand centre.