No Excuses

At present, however, there are no indicators that our education system will be able to fulfil this crucial role in the near future. The most recent results from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for this country shows a 16 percent drop in the number of students who got a full certificate of five subjects or more. This matches a decline in previous years for specific core subjects. In 2002, for example, 64 percent of students passed English Language; in 2003, only 56 percent did. In 2002, 53 percent passed Mathematics; in 2003, this pass rate dropped slightly to 51 percent.

Even in non-core subjects, the picture is not encouraging. In the Visual Arts, the failure rate holds steady at around 40 percent. In Music, where this society always pats itself on the back for having so much talent, the pass rate dropped from 71 percent to 51 percent between 2002 and 2003. So, although our elite-biased system has never served the mass of students well, the new decline in those getting full certificates suggests that the rot has begun to spread upward — as inevitably must happen in an education system which does not cater for the average learners.

Although it would be unfair to blame Education Minister Hazel Manning entirely for this decline, the figures certainly suggest that when her husband, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, described her as "the best Education Minister this country has ever had," he was not exactly accurate. In any case, even if we were inclined to blame Mrs Manning, she has already stated that she is not responsible for her ministry’s shortcomings. This is perhaps an understandable, if not acceptable, attitude from one who was appointed, not on the basis of qualifications nor even having faced the polls, but because of her relationship with the Prime Minister. But, as letter-writer Traci Lall has pointed out in Friday’s Newsday, it is Mrs Manning "who holds the portfolio as Education minister, receiving the appropriate, affluent salary and perks, and it is her photograph that appears in all those full-page colourful ads that boast of her so-called grandiose achievements."

If, however, Mrs Manning does not see herself as bearing any responsibility for the education system’s deficiencies at the present time, she should identify who is responsible and take action to have them shape up or ship out. Her ministry has spent millions of taxpayers’ dollars to promote its various events and initiatives, and the country would like to see all this bear fruit — as reflected in more passes in the CXC examinations.

It is not enough to blame, as politicians are wont to do, the "system." Which is not to say that systemic problems mustn’t be attended to. Indeed, when the Education Ministry last week held its annual conference on curriculum development, Harvard professor Haiyan Hua, who was the feature speaker, gave some pertinent advice. "We simply need to be more analytical, evidence-driven, and quality conscious," she said. "There should be no excuses."

These are words Mrs Manning should pay close attention to.