radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
T&T’s renowned Maths Master Dr Fayad W Ali says success in exams comes from having a disciplined environment for tuition, continuous parental support and well-trained teachers.
Dr Ali was asked to share his views on the dismal Secondary Entrance Assessment results as well as his thoughts on whether the Education Ministry should arrange supplemental classes for students during the July/August vacation.
The educator, who has taught more than 46,000 students with a 100 per cent pass rate, said it is important to assess why the SEA grades were low before action is taken.
“We must look for the cause and not only treat the symptom,” he said.
“Was it that online tuition was not met with the same level of absorption as face-to-face tuition? Students this year were faced with two years of online tuition. Was it due to the inability of a considerable number of students to access online learning? Was it due to students being a bit delinquent as they may have been unsupervised for long periods?”
Out of the 19,000 students who wrote SEA, only 89 scored above 90 per cent and 37 per cent scored above 50 per cent, the Ministry revealed last week. This means more than 11,000 students scored below 50 per cent.
Dr Ali, whose online classes were in demand during the pandemic, believes parents should share responsibility for their children’s grades.
“Greater parental support concerning ensuring regular attendance and punctuality, completed homework and school assignments, adhering to proper uniform and the rules of the school, overseeing of reports and working with teachers to improve shortfalls,” he said.
He said in denominational schools grades are often better than in government schools because they generally get the academically higher-performing students.
“Higher performers are generally harder workers, more disciplined, self-sacrificing,” he explained.
“Teachers are expected to be more accountable with respect to the academic performance of students under their tutelage.”
In lower-performing schools, teachers might actually work much harder and even need to employ skills in re-mediation strategies to enhance a student’s performance,” he added.
Dr Ali said teachers should be better trained at these institutions in diagnosis and re-mediation strategies and even counselling strategies.
“It is much more difficult to manage students from these schools, especially ones with learning disabilities. Sadly, the yeoman efforts of teachers at such institutions go mostly unnoticed and unheralded,” he said.
Dr Ali has written more than 140 Mathematics, Add Maths textbooks and practice test books over the years. The popular faspassmaths.com website which he has created along with Dr Shereen Khan has over three million hits as it offers detailed solutions to CXC Maths, Add Maths, NCSE Maths, SEA, and National tests for Std 1, Std 3 as well as study guides.
Asked what could be done to assist students and obtain better grades in future examinations, Dr Ali said data should be gathered about the root cause of the failing grades before any decision is taken.
“There were still students in the 99 percentile range at SEA levels. There were also students attaining straight 1’s and straight A’s at the CXC and CAPE levels. One must remember that even the most brilliant student still needs to be taught. It is only after being taught does learning follow,” he explained.
For Mathematics, in particular, language is a major problem.
“The ability to read a question, extract data, examine what is being asked and then plan the strategy of solving is the major cause for failure, especially in the worded questions. I continue to teach Mathematics with these guidelines and my method has not changed too much over the years. I continue to expect full support from parents and only require a student who is willing to learn. The rest is up to me.”
For the new term, Dr Ali said there should be a review of topics on the syllabus.
“What was expected during online learning and examining may prove to be rather disappointing,” he said.
He said teachers should remember that not all students have the same abilities, yet they are expected to be examined the same way and at the same time. With proper parental guidance, a safe space to learn, willingness from the student and dedication from teachers, the success rate can be improved next year.
