Now that the official Child Month has passed with the usual expressed sentiments of the importance of children to the future of our nation, and the need to create environments conducive to their proper spiritual, social, emotional, and intellectual growth, I wish to direct our attention to two aspects of our children's education that demand immediate, purposeful action from those charged with the responsibility to provide the best educational opportunities for Jamaica's children. There are other important educational matters, but I wish at this time to comment on two, namely, the insidious shift system still operating in our primary schools, and the underachievement of boys in primary schools.

Scope of the ministry's plans

Although I am aware of recent pronouncements from the Ministry of Education that directly or indirectly address these problems, I am concerned about the scope and depth of the ministry's plans and about the availability of enough well-trained personnel to implement these plans effectively and, consequently, rid the primary school system of two maladies with which it has been plagued for too many years.

The current shift system is, undoubtedly, a blight on primary education and a stop-gap measure that has long outlived its original purpose of reducing class size and of providing seats for children in single-session schools that were grossly overcrowded. The shift system is a blight on primary education because it impacts negatively on their experiences as students. It reduces the hours young students spend in the classroom, robs them of quality time for meaningful interaction with their teachers, disregards the danger of young boys and girls returning home at noon to empty dwelling places where there is no adult supervision, and facilitates their aimless wandering to, and loitering in, places where children should not go unsupervised.

In St Ann alone, there are at least six primary schools still operating on the shift system. As a result, thousands of our children are denied optimum learning opportunities every day, their sense of morality is compromised, and their lives are placed in jeopardy.

The second problem, male academic underachievement, has become almost acceptable in Jamaica, and, to a large extent, manifests itself as early as the primary school years. Much can be made of the impact of socio-economic conditions on the academic achievement of our boys, but two important factors that are not usually discussed are the academic challenges that many boys encounter in the classroom and how these challenges are addressed by the school system.

Disabilities

Educational literature tells us that there are proportionately more boys with attention deficit disorders than girls, that proportionately more boys are dyslexic or linguistically challenged, and that, worldwide, proportionately more boys than girls are diagnosed as being academically or emotionally challenged.

A perennial problem in Jamaican primary schools is that children, in general, and our boys, in particular, are not routinely tested to determine if they should receive special education services. And even when some are tested through private arrangements, there usually are no special-education teachers to deliver the much-needed, specialised instruction.

Consequently, primary school becomes an uninviting place for many boys who need specialised instruction addressing their individual needs and learning styles. Primary school becomes the frustrating, forbidding place where failure is experienced daily, the place where a boy's self-esteem takes an undeserved, daily battering.

So, what's to be done about the shift system and the problems many boys encounter? First, the Ministry of Education must discontinue the practice of the shift system, parish by parish, over the next four years, by utilising available space in serviceable, abandoned and underutilised buildings, and by soliciting input and support from local communities, parish-centred organisations of the diaspora, the Jamaican corporate world, and international goodwill, funding agencies.

In addition, teachers' training colleges should be required to include a thorough knowledge of special education theory and effective instructional strategies as a graduation and certification requirement for every one of their graduates. Of course, trained personnel must be available to test every girl or boy whose academic and other performance indicate a possible need for a special-education approach to instruction and classroom management.

School intimidating

The absence of these basic services, especially for certain primary-school boys, makes school an intimidating and discouraging place that strips boys of their self-esteem and invariably leads to early drop-out from the school system, chronic unemployment, and graduation to the universities of crime, or overcrowded prisons.

We are experiencing trying economic times and a host of social and economic problems, but we can and must find effective ways to address at least two of our major school problems. Not to do so would be an abrogation of our responsibilities to the young. May was officially Child Month, but every day must be Children's Day.

I am, etc.,

Herbert E. Murdock

Retired High School Principal

joycevain@cwjamaica.com