Battles after SEA

In my developmental psychology course at university, I was surprised at the research-backed finding that mothers have a very strong influence on children’s academic achievement.

Still so. My recent column, A mother’s ambition, provided an inspiring example. These 18,240 SEA students came from parents of different races and religions – some rich, some poor; some single, some completely absent. These embattled students also came from different primary schools - some better than others - spread across eight educational administrative districts. Some are denominational (church), some are government and some privately managed.

The competitive SEA exam itself has become a boiling-point stressor, with entry into a “prestige secondary school” as the tormenting goal. Secondary schools are judged by academic output, meaning CXC passes and scholarships, for example – never mind the virtuous rhetoric about a school’s sporting, artistic or character-building achievements.

And the schools know that. Is there a level playing field in the educational battleground? Does demography determine a student’s destiny? Why? Students’ battle for their life chances begin but do not end with the SEA.

The prevailing, dominant value in the society is for a grammar education through “prestige” secondary schools, then into university to head into one or the other “professions.” The big question ready for a discussion beyond the confines of this column is to what extent the expensive education system is really serving the civic, social and economic needs of this country? To what extent is our education system unwittingly preserving the existing socio-economic stratification system? To what extent has individual responsibility and choice faltered? Or is it the “system?” Or both? Inequity rears its head from the primary school – even from the fee-paying differentiations at kindergarten.

Take the upper level test from 2010 to 2014. Students from schools in districts Caroni and Victoria consistently showed significantly higher scores than those in Tobago and North Eastern. In the 2012 SEA, while the national average was 4.8 per cent of students scoring 90 per cent and above, schools in Caroni and Victoria produced 6.6 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively. And these were mainly denominational schools. For Tobago, less than one per cent (0.6) of its students crossed the 90 per cent score.

From 2007 to 2011, a much higher proportion of males than females scored 30 per cent or less in the SEA – almost a 3:1 proportion. Where are these boys now? Check the Remand Yard. (R. Deosaran. Inequality, Crime and Education in Trinidad and Tobago: Removing the Masks, 2016, pp 200-210) Of the 17,268 who wrote in 2010, 62.5 per cent of females scored 90 per cent and higher in the SEA while 37.5 per cent of males did so. In fact, since then, in every year, more females scored 90 per cent and higher than males, thus entering “prestige schools” in higher proportions than males. Privately-run, fee-paying primary schools do very well.

The battle continues. We surveyed 1,300 to find out what they did three years after leaving secondary school.

We found that a much higher proportion of students from “prestige schools” entered university while those from other types ended up “working only.” Of course, in the competitive Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) system, merit by examination is the criterion.

While, for example, 72 per cent of East Indian students sampled went into university, 47 per cent Africans and 49 per cent of the Mixed group respectively did so. (See Inequality, Crime and Education, 2016).

While 65 per cent of students from two-parent homes went into university (48 per cent UWI), 52 per cent from single-parent homes did so (32 per cent UWI).

Upper social class students had the highest proportion (85 per cent) entering university. Lower class had 47 per cent. It is essentially the battle between proportions which help perpetuate the social stratification system – even if we create more places in “prestige” schools or UWI.

For everyone involved, it is also about “the will to succeed” – the subject of last week’s column.