Warrican: CEE is a demon in education system

The Common Entrance Examination (CEE) is a major barrier to democratic education.{{more}}

That is the view expressed by Dr Joel Warrican, Director of the SVG Community College, as he delivered a lecture recently on the topic ‘Exorcising the Demons of Colonialism: Creating Participating Citizens through Democracy in Education’.

According to Warrican, the CEE was not just a demon in the education systems throughout the region, but was “the major demon” in the education system.

“And it holds people in decision making positions in its clutches, seduces them into believing that it is an objective means of transferring students from primary to secondary education and blinds them to the injustice that it perpetuates in society,” Warrican explained, as he spoke on April 25 at Frenches House.

The common entrance examination was so deceptive Warrican said, that the people against whom this injustice was perpetuated, or those students more likely to fail, were the very ones who were most likely to see the examination as a means by which they can join the academic elite.

“Despite the fact that only a few children from the less-privileged backgrounds realize the goal of joining the academic elite, it is enough to give parents a sense of false hope that next year it could be their child who passes for a prestigious school,” he said.

Every year, more students are often left disappointed, Warrican continued.

The examination is a derivative of the Eleven plus examination that was used in the British school system and was used to determine the type of education children would receive after they completed primary education, he explained.

“Essentially what the examination did, was to exclude those who were deemed unsuccessful from the prestigious grammar schools that prepared students for university entry.”

The examinations, according to Warrican, started as a way to assign students to one of the three types of schools that existed, grammar, technical and modern and although the original intention was that these types of schools would equally be prestigious, this did not come into being; and coming out of it the schools were ranked in a hierarchical order beginning with the grammar schools at the top.

Other than the anxiety associated with the examination, there were other criticisms leveled at it, Warrican said.

For example, not only was it said that the examination created an educational elite, it was suggested that the margins of error were great enough to allow the misallocation of a considerable number of children.

“For example, based on the results of the Common Entrance Examination, many of the region’s students suffered the unjust act of being assigned to certain schools on the assumption that they could not meet the standards of the more prestigious schools,” Warrican explained.

He argued that it was an effective way to select students, especially when places in secondary school were limited.

“But if the purpose of the common entrance examination is to select students for the limited spaces in secondary schools, then today, when all but a few countries in the region have achieved universal secondary education with enough places in secondary schools for all students completing primary education, the question is, why do we need to select students for anything?” he questioned.

Another part of the “demon” spawned by the CEE is the notion that children be separated into groups based on the academic ability.

“The injustice here is that it creates a hierarchical system where the secondary school you attend gives you status, resulting in some people who have much to contribute to their community being seen as second class citizens because they did not attend the ‘right’ school,” Warrican said.

While admitting that he was not suggesting that there was no need for an exit assessment at the end of the primary phase, Warrican said that it was desirable to assess the academic status of each child moving into the next phase of education.

What was undesirable, however, was the use of the assessment activity to separate children into groups that then receive inequitable treatment.

He further contended that the primary school exit assessment should be part of the students’ permanent record that follows them to which ever secondary school they eventually attend, as a guide to their new teachers.

If all schools in the region worked towards developing itself into an institution that tied the notions of building self-confidence, self-esteem, fostering positive attitudes and maintaining community, then it would not matter what school a student attends.

“The thing is that all schools would take in a cross section of students and eventually all schools would have the reputation of turning out successful students,” Warrican explained.

And the point is that since all schools would have a cross section of students, no one student would feel like a second rate citizen because of the school attended and all students would have the chance to become more confident.

“This would put an end to the myth that only the so-called academically able are valuable to society. It would also prevent the loss of the diversity of talents that exist among our young people, and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, would be a great triumph,” he said.

Dr Warrican is a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus and is currently seconded to the post of Director of the SVGCC.

His lecture coincided with the release of his fifth book which provides guidance for teachers of literacy in a Caribbean context.