“When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him”- John Kennedy
The following is an article published in The Gleaner, Saturday, May 18, 2013, about a student who obtained a Grade 1 (A) in CXC CSEC English at age 12, and will be refused to graduate because she does not want to re-sit the subject in her final year of High School. She already holds 7 CXC subjects, more than what many High School graduates in Jamaica and the Caribbean can boast. She has one year of High School to complete before she graduates.
Despite achieving seven CSEC subjects …Glenmuir fourth-former might not be allowed to graduate
Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer
OLD HARBOUR, St Catherine:LEANN EBONY Lewis copped grade one in English language in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) at age 12.
In fact, nearing the end of her fourth-form year at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon, the 15-year-old, who now has seven CSEC subjects, might not be among the institution’s 2014 graduates.
“The school rule is that if you don’t sit English and math in your fifth-form year, you cannot graduate,” principal Monacia Williams explained. “We are not telling her to sit it over, we are just telling her that she cannot graduate.”
LeAnn also obtained a grade-three pass in mathematics when she sat the exam as a second former; however, her mom, Shirley Lewis, said that while she would be resitting that subject, there was no plan for her to resit English.
“When she got the grade one in English, I sent a copy of the result to the principal and she called and congratulated us and asked what our intention was for her, and Lascelles (LeAnn’s father) told her that it was our intention to allow her to do as many subjects as possible,” Lewis explained.
Lewis, who operates the Blackwood Gardens Advanced Miracle Learning Centre in Old Harbour Bay, raised the issue at a recent Gleaner Community Forum held at the Social Development Commission’s St Catherine Parish Office in Spanish Town.
“I wonder if education is a shackle,” she remarked.
Lewis later explained to The Gleaner that she didn’t think it was fair for a child to be penalised for achieving academic excellence at any given time.
“LeAnn was told some time ago that if she didn’t do it (English) over, she would be penalised; she would not be graduating and would not be going to sixth form. For somebody who hasn’t done wrong, and is doing well academically, to say she would be penalised is a very strong word,” said Lewis.
parents know rules
However, the principal said that LeAnn’s parents were cognisant of the school’s rules governing graduation from the initial stages.
“Every child is given a handbook free of cost at the beginning of their school career. It states quite clearly that in order for a student to be allowed to graduate that student has to do English and math in their fifth-form year,” Williams said.
According to Williams, she had advised LeAnn’s father from she obtained English that it would have been better for her if she did all her subjects at one sitting.
“This situation came up long ago when I said to the father it is not doing your daughter any favours for her to be doing CSEC subjects every year, because she might be very bright. In order for her to qualify for a scholarship, she will have to show that she did all of these subjects at one sitting,” said Williams.
At the same time, principal of St Jago High in Spanish Town, St Catherine, Sandra Swyer-Watson, told The Gleaner that while her students were encouraged to sit their subjects in fifth form, sitting math and English was not a criterion for graduation or sixth-form placement.
“We don’t have that rule here, that’s not part of our graduation criteria; what affects the students graduating is attendance at school, if we think a child’s conduct is not suitable for St Jago High school, deportment and so on,” explained Swyer-Watson.
In the meantime, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Clayton Hall, described the specific rule governing graduation at Glenmuir as “illogical”.
“We do not believe that students should be penalised for doing well. The JTA is of the opinion that no child should be disenfranchised because that child has chosen to achieve the stated objective early,” commented Hall. “In fact, we are a proponent of a competence-based education which indicates that students are successful when they’ve mastered concepts; it does not matter when these concepts are mastered,” Hall, principal, Spanish Town High School, told The Gleaner.
After reading this article all I could think was ‘This is utter crap’. Our education system is so flawed and I can only conclude that because our students are able to score high scores on tests, it is said that we are actually learning. Well I know that for me, because I was able to master regurgitation in some subjects I was considered ‘bright’.
It seems to me that the only reason we do CXCs is to move on to do CAPE and from CAPE to gain entry into University. To this day I cannot tell you any sociological theory I was taught except Marxism and that’s because I had read extensively on Karl Marx eons before stepping foot in Sixth Form. ( I am a bit of a history buff)
We don’t think that doing a subject is for our own benefit but to make a school look good when results come in and that was clearly what the principal of Glenmuir believes.
Monacia Williams it is clear that you are incapable of being a good educator because there is no justification behind barring a student from graduating because said student refuses to re-sit a subject she clearly had the competence to obtain a Grade 1 in. Why not praise the child and encourage her to put more energy into doing more subjects, who knows, maybe she will accumulate the necessary subjects to matriculate to sixth form at 16.
It is clear that this student is gifted and in this country, we fail to see it until that person gets recognition from outside, and then we begin to hear whispers and see the gleaming pride “you know she was a Jamaican?”
I remember in high school when a few of us dropped 1 or 2 subjects, and opted not to sit 9 as was custom, the Principal had the gall to have us stay in the auditorium after assembly to ask if we had gone mad. Clearly, no one cared that some of us, including myself had amassed 2 or 3 subjects the year before. No one asked if we wanted to take up another subject to make us more rounded when we left. No one cared about anything except the results and the schools’ scores – ‘Math 200 students sat, 100% pass, English 200 students sat, 100% pass’
What was even more daunting was that students who were ‘labeled’ as not capable of passing the subjects, were not signed off to do so, and had to try their luck at the exams outside of school.
Many of us can attest to these scenarios and are afraid to speak up because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that our traditional High Schools are not tainted, and that we are still THE High School of choice for the brightest and the best.
What I was taught as ‘CXC level Math & English’ are what my cousins in the US did in Grades 6 and 7. I can even remember in my evening Math class in forth form an 11 year old Asian sat beside me week after week preparing to do the same exams I was to sit in another year. By the time I got to fifth form, his brother, 10, was in the same class ready to score a Grade 1 in Math as his brother did the year before.
Jamaica, we are more capable that we give ourselves credit for and we can accomplish so much more. Why do we feel the need to hold ourselves back and hold the nation back because of a confederacy of dunces who cannot and will not see past mediocrity. We can and we need to do better. Minister Thwaites, let’s move past the condom in schools debate, you need to intervene.