I was pleased to hear Dr Rowley announce that he intended to "interfere" with the school curriculum. True curriculum reform is long overdue in T&T. We have wasted money in importing dubious foreign curriculum expertise, failing to recognise that no one can improve the school curriculum in T&T without an understanding of our culture and sharing our vison.
To these ends, curriculum reforms must first clarify our philosophy as a nation. Do we believe in economic independence, or dependency? Do we believe that the purpose of schooling is simply to obtain academic distinctions, or do we expect the education system to prepare people to appreciate our land and to be proud of our national identity? Do we expect that education should prepare students for living rewarding and peaceful lives? What should be the desired image of a graduate from our formal school system?
We must therefore begin with proper research to find out what members of this society expect from citizens; the behaviours and the dispositions that we value. We need to elicit views from a cross-section of the population, not only the teachers; but also parents, employers, shop-keepers, self-employed, farmers and even the prisoners. From this research we can define relevant goals, outcomes and competencies for graduates from the formal education system. I reject the "public consultations" that have supplanted proper research, as a wastage of money; simply providing opportunities for some to vent and others to boast, over free lunches.
We then have to engage curriculum experts from our various local universities to break down the expectations of the people into meaningful and achievable objectives, but their most difficult task would be to prepare effective learning tasks, based on learning theories, that can help students achieve the objectives. In other words, teaching would not be based on recall and replication, but on active involvement of students in research, problem-identification, problem-solving, experimentation, and collaboration. Here is where properly trained teachers can exploit the interactive features of the computer to facilitate learning.
Along with curriculum reform we need to boost the management capability of school principals, we need accountability, independent supervisory teams and people who can take action to overcome weaknesses in student behaviour and achievement. It is scandalous to see that the same schools, year after year, cannot get a single Grade 1 pass in any subject.
A simple tactic of publishing each school's CSEC performance each year can foster more accountability. After all, this is already done for the SEA examinations.
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