Over the decades, Jamaica’s education
system has undergone periods of development.
Many schools that started from the churches and evolved into government
funded institutions. Teachers’ colleges
opened and trained teachers to educate the masses in various disciplined suited
for the nation’s majority. Then, various
types standardization of our education system were established producing students who were exposed to college
trained teachers who taught from specifically designed curriculum.
Who still remember “Common Entrance
Examinations?” This was viewed as a period of stress because the results were
placed in the various printing presses at the time and if your name was not
published, it felt like your life was over! This caused much embarrassment for many
students. Since then, much has changed and so in 1999 the Ministry of Education
changed this national assessment tool to Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). Though a good tool of assessment, which
tested knowledge, skill and content application of students, many of the
results were misused. While many
students were placed in the schools of choice, others were placed in under
resourced schools that could not cater to their needs.
Therefore, the question is asked about the
purpose of assessment? Is it to give both students and teachers a better view of
what is taught, skills acquired and design approaches, revision and update of
content and improve on formative and summative assessments or is it now just
for students and teachers to boast that the students that they teach are
capable of passing and exam with their guidance? Whatever the answer, many of our students do
not see assessment in a positive light.
In my interviews with students at the secondary and undergrad levels
over the years, many students see assessment as a stress mechanism for them to
dislike learning. Many expressed the
desire to leave the institutions and some have left, while others harden their
hearts from the joy of learning something new. They become anxious to leave the
institutions and do not focus on mastery
and push mainly quantity of content.
Many times students express fear of being
in classes taught by some lecturers where it was once boasted that if success
is achieved from them in the first examination, that the students is regarded
as brilliant. But, why were those
teachers/lecturers allowed to teach with such low success rates? Unfortunately, this still exists today in the
21st century.
Suggestions to improve assessment: Revision
of the syllabus, course outlines to make it more relevant and teacher/learner
friendly; revision of content produced at the teachers’ colleges/universities;
improve the learning environment (class setting, furniture and technology);
acquire better teaching resources; dialogue with public and private sector in
which employs the “educated” graduates; face-to-face listening session with the
students; and improve the areas of assessment with the aid of curriculum
specialist from both MOE and universities.
Our education system is considered to be the best. This is evident in the acceptance of our
students and teachers in institutions outside our shores. Let us not make assessment feels like a
weapon of mental destruction, but a tool of placement for our students to fit
into the 21st century work space.