Who is really at SEA?

If they were not demoralised by the shameful errors on the examination paper, they have been undermined by an education system geared only towards sorting the best from the rest.

Furthermore, even as we feed our youngest citizens into an archaic machine that sorts and separates the winners and the losers, we know the product being churned out has less and less value to a country desperate for creativity and innovation.

Yet we are making no real effort to change it. Successive governments have paid scant regard to education policy development.

One wonders about the future of the eruption of joyous schoolchildren pictured on the front pages of all newspapers on the conclusion of the 2017 SEA exam. Where will each one be in five years’ time? No doubt a precious few will be well on their way to fulfilling their dreams, having received excellent tuition.

An even more precious few may have pushed past the boundaries of a system still bent on suppressing exploration of thought and ideas to challenge what Sir Ken Robinson describes as the “tyranny of common sense.” Robinson argues that education systems world-wide focus far too heavily on testing rather than learning and as a result, childish curiosity is replaced by compliance in order to succeed.

It is hard to imagine another place in the world where the tragedy of a compliance-motivated education system is more evident.

Which is really very strange since it is equally hard to imagine any sector other than education that, with the investment of enough thought and effort, could prove more transformative for a country.

The Ministry of Education has revealed disturbing trends in rates of drop-outs, linking the high rate to “financial difficulties,” including the cost of transport. Not insurmountable one would think with a little creative thinking and dedication of purpose, and the support of other government ministries.

However, the more glaring problem that has been staring us in the face for some time is the demotivation and chronic underachievement of large groups of students, particularly boys. Furthermore, it has long been obvious that the sorting system of education underscores existing socio-economic divisions in the country, creating opportunities for a few, while perpetuating a sense of failure and marginalisation for many, impacting more profoundly on boys.

The challenge of underachievement cannot be addressed as a stand-alone issue. The causes of students’ underachievement in education are as interlocking as the impact that the failure to reach their full potential has on the overall economic and social development of the country. What is urgently needed is an integrated policy that takes into account the contributing factors to underachievement, including neurological/biological differences of boys and girls at different stages of their development; pedagogical approaches that do not support the development of productive citizens; socialisation and gender norms that are not adequately addressed in schools, serving to reinforce notions of masculinity that ultimately undermine boys’ interest and confidence in educational achievement; socio-economic status of students in an education system that emphasises elite structures so that only a few are destined to overcome the burdensome challenges of attending and succeeding at school.

We have relied too long on systems — in particular an education system — that had only colonial relevance. In one of his many talks about transforming education, Sir Ken Robinson quotes a statement made by Abraham Lincoln at an 1862 speech to congress: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthral ourselves and then we shall save our country.” The time is 2017 and the stormy present occasions in Trinidad and Tobago.

We cannot hope to ever diversify our economy or broaden our horizons or, for that matter, overcome the downward spiral of crime and violence until we invest deeply in a fundamental overhaul of our education system.