A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE . . . ISN’T IT?

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or born and bred Caribbean natives, before long lectures in university halls, wooden and concrete structures, grass fields and gravel schoolyards is where we do our first rounds of schooling. If applied smartly, the learning habits we are trained to adopt can set us on a path of excellence. Normally, Caribbean teachers do not alter exercises and examinations to make things easier; instead we learn early that you work for what you want. We learn that study and practice are essential to achieve the extraordinary. First, second, even third drafted essays hardly ever earn full grades as “there is always room for improvement”; the same goes for projects. We learn that attentiveness and engagement yield the best results.

The education system, particularly schooling in Saint Lucia, has garnered public attention in recent months with curriculums, teachers and infrastructure at the centre of the discourse. Prime Minister Allen Chastanet said during a recent press briefing, “If you have a bad curriculum but great teachers I think you will still be very successful. But if you have a great curriculum and bad teachers I don’t think you’ll be very successful.” He shared these sentiments while sugggesting that we need to heighten our teaching standards in order to improve school and student performance. He also revealed his hope of modelling more successful countries when he stated, “The idea that to come right out of high school and do two years of training at Sir Arthur and become now a certified teacher, is not a high enough standard. We need to raise the standards of our teachers.”

Some have openly agreed with the prime minister’s perspective, not only because it is factual that to qualify as a teacher, the basic requirements are as he stated, but for more consequential reasons. For instance, according to IQ research done by British Psychology and Finnish Political Science professors Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, where 80 countries were examined via IQ tests and ranked from one to fourty-three, one being the “smartest”, Hong Kong was one of two countries (Singapore the other) taking the number one spot. Similar results have been seen in other such studies. Could it be that in the late 1990s regulations requiring teachers to possess a Bachelor’s degree, even to teach at a primary school level, were instated in Hong Kong? Could students’ and a civil society’s supposed intelligence be directly linked to the country’s standardized teaching requirements?

Needless to say, not everyone has agreed with the prime minister’s statements. Some felt the criticism of teachers to be particularly harsh. One teacher, during an HTS news broadcast, reasoned, “The prime minister sought to ridicule the professional qualification of teachers when he indicated that the problem with the education system is that teachers are not sufficiently qualified. The certificate or associate degree in Teacher Education, which is what determines that a teacher is qualified, is provided by the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and it is endorsed by the University of the West Indies through the joint board of Teacher Education of the Eastern Caribbean. It is a regional qualification that determines whether you can practise in the teaching profession as a certified teacher.”

This presents a contrary yet vital question: the College’s certification programme, years old and operating on a regional
level, equips teachers with tools to deliver lessons in curriculums at a pre-determined standard, no doubt set by professionals. So why is it now being perceived as subpar?

This leads to another area which has been receiving a lot of attention: the physical condition of schools. Prime Minister Allen Chastanet stated on a separate occasion “There are some schools that are fifty years old or older, and we’ve not spent money for years on maintaining these schools. So, I’m being asked as the minister of finance [to] make monies immediately available, which those funds are not necessarily available. “But, I believe that the curriculum needs to change. And before you design or build any new buildings, or fix up the buildings, you must understand what that curriculum is.”

When speaking with the STAR about their perspective of the Secondary School curriculum, a principal of one of the island’s top performing schools, with over twenty years of teaching experience said, “The school’s curriculum in terms of a Caribbean context is not something that is bad in all sense. Because when you look . . . we have produced some brilliant persons who will go out there . . . with a strong base and would do very well at universities on the international stage . . . there’s a little more that should be included in terms of the technical subjects. We need to introduce more practical work within the schools, and also the use of technology . . . I do not think that there is enough in terms of utilizing technology by teachers at schools.”

Although expressed with more appreciation for Saint Lucia’s school curriculums, the principal’s take on marrying education and technology echos some of the prime minister’s opinions, he having declared this as his desire.

Despite it all, persons operating in and out of the education system await these changes. No doubt, all would prefer said changes to come to fruition in an environment where both teachers and students are comfortable.