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A parent’s take on the public education system

12 octobre 2016, 12:25

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Being a teacher in today’s world is no easy task!  We are living in a world of extremes where we see both “le phénomène de l’enfant roi” and also the extreme neglect of children by parents who absolve of their responsibilities. A teacher inherits of a class where both extremes meet and is expected to turn the whole bunch into law abiding citizens – I defy any parent to try his hand at this mammoth task for just a day and not end the day with a massive headache!

And the bunch is quite large as well – my daughter’s primary school class consists of close to 40 eleven year olds brimming with unspent energy!  Add to that the interference of some parents who think their angels can do no wrong and the lack of values of a number of children who think that their wishes are commands and I can’t help wondering how teachers survive their work. Hats off here to the fantastic lady who is my daughter’s teacher!  She has my eternal gratitude for the wonderful work she does and has done over the last 3 years!

And the same compliment goes to all the teachers who have contributed to the education of our children.  True there are some ‘brebis galeuses’ – I have seen rare instances of teachers who: are irregular or even absent from classes; tell students that they teach the bare minimum at school and to benefit from their ‘knowledge’, students are welcome to their private tuitions and are, in some instances, totally incompetent at the subject they teach! But I must say that 95% of the teachers my children have encountered are true to their profession and do their best in an education system which is by no means perfect. 

Close to 35% of students do not pass the CPE and we also see significant drop outs at secondary level.  The PSAC (Primary School Achievement Certificate) or 9 year schooling aims to tackle the problems we see with the CPE and as a parent going through the process for the second time this year, there are a few observations I made which could contribute positively to the debate:

By all means the CPE has to be overhauled – we cannot accept and condone a system which leaves out 35% of children each year.  Every child should be properly accompanied to successfully complete primary education – it is a question of basic children’s rights and is of paramount importance for them to live a dignified life when they grow up. The main cause of drop out at CPE (according to me who am by no means an expert) is the automatic promotion of students from class to class.  Children who have not yet mastered the basics of one education level are being asked to move on to the next level.  Chances are that they will never catch up.  Automatic promotion was instituted to prevent the harm caused to children when they are ‘rejected’ and cannot move on to the next class.  But I believe that remedial action should be taken earlier on in the process rather than later.  An analogy in construction is a structure where the foundation is not solid enough – it is bound to crash!

Now, how can the same teacher deal with a child who cannot write his name and at the same time teach pupils the intricacies of the complex mathematics problems we see at CPE level?  Separating students of similar aptitude into different groups is a must to allow teachers to devote the right attention to each group.  Let us not forget that primary education teaches students the basic life skills they will require to become integrated citizens – reading, writing, counting and doing simple mathematics sums are required to live a decent life and not only to pass CPE.  Students need to be given the appropriate attention to gather these basic skills, which should be within any child’s reach. Classes of manageable size are also a prerequisite for the appropriate attention to be given to each child.

We tend to talk a lot about school and teachers but what about parents?  Very often we see that students who thrive at school have parents who take interest in their children’s schoolwork.  In this fast moving and materialistic world, parents sometimes relegate the responsibility of their children’s education to school and the message this sends to children is that studies are not important.  Even when parents do not have the academic education level required to ‘follow’ their wards’ progress, children benefit from the interest their parents take in their studies.  Regular chats with teachers can also help understand areas of improvement so that remedial action can be targeted.

Finally, in the process of looking after the needs of children with learning difficulties, we should not forget that we also need to cater for the needs of the more gifted children. These are probably the leaders of tomorrow and I am afraid that if we do not cater for their needs, they will get bored and either be the new ‘drop outs’ of the system or not develop their full potential.  I would not like to talk here of ‘elite’ as this gives the impression that some children are superior to their peers.  I would rather like to talk about giving the ‘right’ amount of challenge to each child according to his or her needs, in addition to teaching them the basic skills required at each education level.  That need or talent could be at sports, arts, music, mathematics, French or any other field of study.

Ensuring that children of different abilities, be it academic or non-academic, get their fair chance in the same education system is by no means an easy task.  However, we owe it to the future generation to at least try to give our children the tools they require to thrive in the fast changing world we live in. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised by the text books I have seen at primary level.  They have far evolved from the ‘Remi et Marie’ of my times – they are modern and include material which is totally relevant to the world our children live in.  They are updated regularly and include latest events pertaining to topics being studied (such as the Iceland volcanic eruption) and also internet links to pertinent websites. This shows that the education system is definitely evolving in the right direction and that there is hope yet for the future.

On the other hand, we can create a perfect education system but it will not work as long as we do not find a durable solution to the gangrene that is eating it up: private tuition.  I am dead against private tuition in its current state for 2 reasons: I trust that teachers are doing their best at school and they should be able to cater for the needs of the majority of students. Moreover, I cannot imagine when my 15 year old son would relax and bed down what he has learnt if he had to take tuitions for each of his 8 subjects!  And some of his friends take 2 tuitions for some subjects!  This is pure madness especially given that some private tuition classes consist of more than 25 children – this gives a whole new dimension to ‘private’!

From what I have seen, private tuition has become a way of life.  Every parent believes that his child would lose out and lag behind if he does not get into the race of private tuition.  But I have an appeal to all parents to please stop for a second and think – a secondary school pupil leaves home at 7 and is back at around 15.30.  If he has tuition he is likely to be back at 17.30 at the earliest.  When will this child relax if he then has to complete his homework, have dinner and freshen up and sleep?  I have seen teenagers sleeping on the way to school because they cannot sleep for 7 hours at night!  Is this the life we want for our children?

And how much benefit does the child get from the private tuition if he has worked for 6 hours every day at school?  What can a teacher do in 1 hour at tuition that the school teacher cannot do at school?  We, as parents and as decision makers, need to find a solution to this problem.  Parents need to understand that private tuition should be individual attention to specific problems a child is having and not a substitute for school unless, of course, school is not working!

To conclude, even though we hear lots of criticism of our public education system, as a parent I believe that it is not all that bad.  We have fantastic teachers who are extremely devoted to their jobs, we have up to date study material and infrastructure, there is a real willingness to change the primary school education system into something which caters for children’s needs and reduce drop outs and we have wonderful young brains at work who only need guidance and support to thrive.   What really needs improvement is increased parental support into the system and in my point of view, we need to get rid of private tuition in its current form – and that is something which can only be done once parents acknowledge the issues with the system.