Why aren’t some of us proud of our students?

22.JUN.07

EDITOR: The 2007 Common Entrance Examination has come and gone and last week we all celebrated the successes of the 1,507 students. This year’s performance showed a 60.89 percent pass rate – an increase of 19.59 over last year’s results.

However, there were those who are intent on undermining any progress made in this country.{{more}}

The Common Entrance Examination is the hardest exam our children will ever do in their lives. It is the lone exam that they will be required to complete in one day. The Ministry of Education moved this year to have the Composition as well as the personal data done before the actual day of the exam. This, I am certain, impacted on the results, as it was a less stressful, June 1.

The ministry with all its flaws is endeavouring to make the examinations as student-friendly as possible.

But rather than encouraging the move, the detractors, for cheap political gain, sought to discredit the validity and reliability of the exams. Some said that the results reflected a crop of good students while others opined that the results were cooked to reflect favourably the government’s education thrust. How low can we get?

Their comments were not only an insult to the Ministry of Education, but an attack on the teachers – the intelligence of the nation. The same teachers you ridicule are the second parents, counsellors, babysitters, mentors and nurses of your children.

Moreso, it was a spit of venom on the students whom we sometimes say have no sense of direction.

Do they question CXC when students are gaining 11 and 12 Grade ones? Ten years ago six or seven Grade ones were a rarity. Is it that these examinations are less valid?

We should be thankful that there is a group of children that can achieve and put in the extra when it matters most. It showed that with goals and targets to achieve our pre-teens can rise to the occasion.

We should be encouraging them to take that similar approach throughout their lives.

Gone are the days when only few schools in the nation had access to past papers. In fact, the ministry is ensuring that there is equity by providing schools with past examination scripts along with evaluation and samples of students’ responses.

Most parents today are spending their last cent on their children to see them succeed especially at the Common Entrance and are going the extra mile to assist them.

To the detractors, take a read of the published comments of the top performers as appeared in last week’s newspapers.

Their study regimen employed and the several other hundred reflected discipline and hard work, assets that are lacking in many of us. And in an age of technology, students are more apt to seek information on their own and do not rely solely on teachers.

To those who were successful, stand, take a bow, you have done the nation and its education system proud!

A Proud Parent