During the past week there have been calls from several commentators and "consultants" for the scrapping of the Ministry of Education's National Test. In all human projects it is necessary to examine what was done and to measure the effectiveness of our actions. This is what the National Test is about. We have heard of students who remained illiterate after both primary and secondary schooling. The National Test is intended to identify weak students, teachers and schools, for timely corrective action. The main purpose of the test is to gather information for decision-making at the primary school, district and national levels.
What has happened is that having gathered the information, the Ministry of Education has failed to design a workable and effective intervention to undertake remedial action to improve the low-performing schools. Once this is done, the test can become meaningful. My suggestion is that the Ministry of Education need not test every child in each school. A proper random sample can suffice, and can go a long way in reducing the anxiety associated with this test. Furthermore, remedial action may make use of distance education strategies where teachers and students can remain in school to receive quality instruction to correct their weaknesses. This intervention can utilise the infrastructure of the National Open School network already in place. I call on the Ministry of Education not to throw out the baby with the bath water but to address the matter of effective remedial interventions.
David Subran
Montrose, Chaguanas