Well, it’s that time of the year once again!! That time when we became the only country on the planet to go ga-ga over the scores of our 11-year-olds in the exams that allow them to move from primary to secondary school. If you think your Eyewitness is exaggerating, just tell him in which other country such scores make it to the FRONT PAGES OF EVERY NATIONAL NEWSPAPER!! See?? So, what does that mean? Simply, that in the education field – even though we came out of colonialism sixty years ago – we’re still at the lowest stage of development when it was a big thing for our children to get into “Queen’s College”!!
After slavery – as a mark of great progress – primary schools were launched by the Church – and funded by the government. To be “educated” meant you passed through primary school, and imagine you could become a “pupil teacher” at that point!! What the heck could you teach apart from the “Three Rs” – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic? Queen’s College had been created as the first secondary school just after slavery was abolished for the sons of the lily-white rulers – including some of their coloured ones from their slave concubines. Bishops’ soon followed for their daughters.
Much later a “Common Entrance” exam was launched in the primary schools for a small number of students in 4th Standard across the country to earn a “scholarship” to Queen’s or Bishops’!! And this is where we’ve been stuck ever since – even though secondary schools have been built in every community!! That doesn’t mean there haven’t been changes – but the fact we’re all so excited about who will get into “Queen’s” means that nothing’s really changed!
Somewhere at the beginning of this millennium, we were told that the “Common Entrance Exam” was changed to the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA). This was supposed to be “revolutionary” since the kids were now gonna be ‘ASSESSED’, not tested – and so scores wouldn’t REALLY matter!! Yet the top 100 kids “assessed, not tested” get to attend Queen’s!! Your Eyewitness can be excused for insisting the changes are a distinction looking for a difference!!
Anyhow, this year we have something to smile about – that overall, only 37% of our kids FAILED in all four subjects they are assessed (not tested!) in – as opposed to 51% back in 2015!! Breaking that down in maths, 44.49% failed; in English, 30.75% failed; in social studies, 35.23% failed; and in science, 36.3% failed.
So, as your eyewitness has been emphasising every year at this time, we shouldn’t only be going into paroxysms of joy over the Queen’s-bound cohort – but we should lend a hand to the 37% who failed overall!!
…to the East Side??
In New York, Manhattan’s Upper East Side – from 59th to 78th Streets on Fourth Ave and up to Third Ave – is regarded as the city’s most elite address!! Well, if Zohran Mamdani – the new kid on the block who just got the nod to become the Democratic Party’s candidate in the upcoming mayoralty race – has his way when he wins, every New Yorker’s gonna be able to live on their own East Side!!
While Mamdani is a newcomer to the democratic establishment, for years all he did was work with the poor to prevent the indignity of home foreclosures that would’ve thrown them into the streets. He got to know the lived reality of the poor – and crafted a campaign on “affordability to live”. He struck a chord in even the middle class, which is having problems making ends meet with the steep inflation in food, clothing and housing.
Maybe there’s a lesson for OUR politicians in the 27 registered parties come Sept 1st!!
…the ladder
Now that we’ve hit the big leagues – what with being a major oil producer at 1 million barrels a day by 2027 and growing – we gotta start playing the part!! Adopting Texas’ wide-brimmed hats or Arab keffiyehs?
