Education
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 23/Jul/2010 12:54, 34 days ago
We live next door to Campion College so I hear the students happily chattering every day between classes. Right now summer school is in progress, but I've been told that summer school's not the same as in Canada where students go to raise their marks. The students at Campion College are there getting a head start on next year's work. Needless to say, I'm finding the education system here fascinating.The Caribbean Islands have a system where all students write the same exam at exactly the same time on all the islands. The most important test seems to be the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) because the results determine each child's placement in high school. The high schools are streamed plus some are private and others public. Campion is a private Jesuit school.At the time of testing, each 12 year old lists their 5 high school choices and depending on the results of their testng they are offered a placement, if they're lucky, in the school of their first choice. It is actually possible not to be offered a space in any of the schools and so that child will have to scramble around at the last minute to find a placement, or simply drop out of the system as early as age 12. Children do not have a neighbourhood school to go to where they are guaranteed a space.As you can imagine, getting your child into the right school is important. Janique a 16 year old summer student working at the Girl Guides told me that her parents chose to put her in private schools in order to get the best education. It has obviously paid off, she was able to get placed into Campion College, her first choice. At 16, she's fluent in Spanish and French and won the award for best debater at Campion this year. She's smart and confident but told me she's not athletic so feels compelled to join every club available. It's that important to be a well-rounded student. You can never slack off.For those students unable to afford private schools, the public school system is available. I don't believe these schools are free, there are school fees to be paid and uniforms to be bought. Some students only have one uniform which they have to wash every evening ready for school the next morning. Plus the public school system has a poor reputation. Janique's impression is that very few children actually pass the GSAT in the primary school system. This is confirmed with a recent article in the Gleaner about Paul Williams who progressed through the primary system in Trench Town and graduated with a PhD from the London School of Economics and now lives in Boston. Paul is very special and focused. It can be done, but it's not the norm and he's now being held up as an example of what can be achieved.Janique told me that once you get into high school you have to re-apply to get into the final two years - university prep. Once again, there's no guarantee you'll get accepted in your own school even if there are places. Your school could take in students from other schools and you would be left scrambling for a placement in a less desirable school in late August. Good marks and receiving awards isn't a guarantee of continued placement for your final two years, behaviour is also considered, so even Janique worries about her future at Campion, it's not guaranteed. There's obviously going to be a domino effect and some will not find placements in any high school at all. Without these last two years of high school you won't get into university anywhere in the world.At Campion College, once placement has been obtained in 6th form (our equivalent of grade 12) you have to make a further decision. Do you want to prepare for university in Jamaica or abroad? If you choose the international route, you are streamed into special classes that prepare students for the SAT but these students are warned that it's difficult to get into international universities where the competition is tough. The students at Campion College are the cream so they're looking at Ivy League schools. Just think how many students you know of who are accepted into Ivy League universities. Not many, and yet Campion College is churning out class loads of them.All students who graduate from the final two year program are guaranteed places in the Jamaican universities because they don't want all the best educated kids to leave the country. This is the only guarantee after 13 years of schooling - acceptance into university at home! But as Janique says, there just aren't that many job opportunities here so moving abroad is the favoured option. At 16, Janique is already dreaming of university in London, England to join her brother who went the same route and now lives in a flat overlooking The Tower of London. He is obviously doing quite well for himself.However, Janique and Paul's situations (Paul's the PhD student from Trench Town) are not typical. As with everything in Jamaica, there are huge contrasts and inequities. What happens to those poor children begging in the mall for lunch money that I see every day during the school term so they too can go to school the next day or the 12 year olds who can't find a placement in high school? There are very few manufacturing jobs here; I would guess that the most a 12 year old can aspire to is minimum wage retail (if very lucky), working as a street vendor, living with relatives, begging, or crime.On several occasions I have been brought to tears listening to the stories from the CUSO-VSO social workers and others who work with children here in Jamaica where you can be killed for your goat or a bicycle or whatever it is you have that someone else wants. Scrambling to survive, many children fall through the cracks and don't get the education needed to succeed anywhere in the world. It's a fascinating system producing major inequities from what I can see. Many children are getting superior education in nice neighbourhoods while many more are getting the minimum in a community engulfed in crime and violence and all for a price - it's not free.