Teacher migration, COVID-19 blamed for poor performance in critical CXC subjects

 

President of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), Linvern Wright, is theorising that teacher migration and the COVID-19 pandemic are at the centre of the dismal performances registered in some critical Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) subjects this year.

 

This comes following the official release of results by CXC on Tuesday, where a 36 per cent pass rate was registered across the region for mathematics, down from the 43 per cent recorded in 2023.

 

Mr. Wright contends that while student performances were already on the decline, these traumatic events have compounded the issue.

 

He adds that the matriculation of some primary school students into the secondary education system is also an area of concern.

 

"So for example, I don't think more than 25 per cent of our students come into high school ready for mathematics. But you do four years over a kind of traumatic period and it might get worse especially because of the fact that our teachers have continued to migrate. There's no opportunity for you to have a stable programme because these persons are so important to ensuring that you have that."

 

While some students will do well regardless, because they have come into high school ready, Mr. Wright argued that students who needed remedial work and entered high school during the COVID-19 pandemic, will struggle.

 

Seventy-six per cent of candidates regionally passed English A - a 2 per cent decline when compared with last year's results.

 

Mr. Wright argued that there are significant deficiencies within the humanities areas, especially as it relates to writing. 

 

He said students must be encouraged to write as much as possible as this could help improve their overall academics. 

 

"...It might even help them in mathematics; it will help them in mathematics because they can put things together and reason through and be logical and be fluent," he suggested. 

 

Still, the educator lauded the marked improvement in some science subjects.

 

In the meantime, Mr. Wright, who was a guest Wednesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106FM, contended that the investments needed to obtain greater results at the primary and secondary levels are limited. 

 

"We need to be spending more on putting better personnel in primary schools. But when you have these kinds of deficiencies and all your spending in terms of operational expenses is $2,500 per year per child, you're going to have a challenge. When primary school teachers have to be fundraising in order to ensure that schools can go forward, you're going to have a challenge because the time you should be spending for intervention and the kind of sustained attention that the children need, you can't get to do it. And the truth, too, is that we have got to hold ourselves more accountable," he pointed out. 

 

He said neither CXC nor the Primary Exit Profile exams were the problem, admitting that it is the lack of preparation that causes students to fail.