Don’t stop the fun in learning

Mr Cumbermack suggested that the voluminous curriculum results in some students being left behind and education in general being compromised. In our view, however, the situation is far more dire than that. The fact that only a minority of students get a full certificate at CXC, and that we have only six percent of the populace going on to higher education, shows that it is the majority of students who are being left behind. Not only that, but even those who do well within the system are often not really equipped to deal with the challenges of the modern world economy and, indeed, the demands of a modern society.

It is now a truism that the most efficient worker is not the person who has particular skills. Skills and training are necessary, but even more important in the fast-changing world is the ability to be a lifelong learner. Modern companies want employees, whether at executive or shop floor level, who can be retrained, who are good at working in teams, and who need little or minimal supervision. This means that the core purpose of any education system must be to teach students how to teach themselves.

But that process is best begun at the primary school level. Although it is quite possible for students to acquire the creative and critical thinking skills needed in the new workplace at secondary level, the process is much easier if the basic attitudes are put in place at the primary level. Doing this, however, requires significant transformation of the way children are taught. At kindergarten level, infants and toddlers learn basic reading and arithmetical skills through games. Yet as soon as these same children enter primary school, the shift from fun to work is imposed on them. And this is a fundamental error.

In Japan, whose students usually score in the top three countries in international surveys, the goals and objectives at the primary levels are not mainly academic. Instead, elementary schools concentrate on peer socialisation, personality development, procedural skills, hygiene, and physical expression. Slower and more gifted students are mixed. Class control is delegated to small groups of children to encourage group self-discipline and responsibility. Unfortunately, all this changes at secondary level, where long hours and rote learning become the norm. Yet, because of the habits and love of school ingrained at the primary level, Japanese students still do well.

Such a primary school system is diametrically opposed to the teacher-centred, hierarchical approach we have inherited and promulgated in our society. In order to change this, teachers have to be trained differently. They will have to learn methods of stimulating students and making them feel physically and emotionally secure — necessary prerequisites for effective learning. And the teachers will have to be supplied with the tools — from posters to clay to computers — to make learning an exciting and interactive process.

Only if our primary schools are transformed in this way can we hope to effectively transform the secondary schools as well. And only then will Trinidad and Tobago truly be on the path to developed-nation status.