Dear Editor,
Children should be allowed to focus on subjects for which their developed abilities are capable. Children are generally smart, but in Guyana this brilliance is influenced by the attention placed by parents on their children’s academic performance, in addition to being undermined by disparities in the quality of education across schools. For example, senior secondary schools generally have better teachers, so that children of equally capable mental capacities in junior secondary schools may turn out ‘not as brilliant’. This rationale also applies to primary schools.
This said, every child should be allowed to focus on those subjects likely to provide the best outcome for their careers. Naturally there are core subjects.
However, if a child is brilliant, but still wants to pursue a vocational career, the child’s creativity will very probably result in him/her becoming an entrepreneur, versus a doctor, lawyer, etc.
If the child is brilliant but is not interested in vocational subjects, then the child should not be forced to write these additional subjects, as they become a source of unnecessary stress.
Further it is probably widely noted in the Caribbean education system the fatigue and distress presented by the School Based Assessment (SBA) component of CXC exams for children writing large numbers of subjects. The Education Ministry could consider lobbying CXC to offer a single subject focused on research, versus the current arrangement where students engage in research in almost all CXC subjects. Alternatively, they could explore testing at GCE. Guyana needs to put itself first and stop being trapped by someone else’s ideas.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester
