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Amid ongoing efforts by the government to improve the education sector, the latest Don Anderson poll has revealed that 39 per cent of Jamaicans are dissatisfied with the standard of public school education.
The survey, which canvassed responses from 1,012 people islandwide, revealed that another 28 per cent of respondents believed the standard of education in Jamaican schools is average, while 29 per cent gave a good to excellent rating.
Head of Market Research Services, Don Anderson, while speaking with the Gleaner, noted that the poll was conducted after the external exam results were released by the Caribbean Examinations Council.
He said this factor had placed the academic performance of Jamaican students under a microscope.
For the May/June 2024 sitting of the CSEC exams, only 18 per cent of students received five or more subjects, including Mathematics and English, representing a three percentage point decrease when compared with 2023.
The survey also revealed that younger respondents had a more positive perception of the level of education, with 41 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 giving a good to excellent rating, while only 27 per cent of that age group had a negative view of Jamaica's standard of education.
Reacting to the findings, President of the Jamaica Teachers' Association Dr. Mark Smith, said greater focus must be placed on implementing the recommendations in the Orlando Patterson Report on Educational Transformation.
The Patterson Report provided 35 recommendations that would fundamentally alter the structure of education management, as well as how, and how much resources are allocated to various segments of the education system.
Data from the 2021 document revealed that 59 per cent of students who had completed primary school in 2019 were failing mathematics, while 45 per cent were failing language arts.
The Education Transformation and Oversight Committee is tasked with implementing the recommendations between 2023-2031.
Meanwhile, Laurel Williams, President of the National Secondary Students' Council, said the mass migration of especially seasoned teachers has created a negative impact on the quality teaching and exam preparation in the classrooms.
The Don Anderson poll was conducted between September 27 and October 3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.
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