Issues in education - Commentary

From the responses students give when I ask them their reasons for attending school I have deduced the following: students attend school because they have a realistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up; students attend school being motivated by an unrealistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up; students attend school because they enjoy acquiring knowledge for the sake of acquiring knowledge; students attend school because they enjoy socialising with their friends. Unlike the students who attend school because their parents send them and who have not thought about the possible benefits of schooling, these students have given some thought to their purpose in school. Some of these students, whom I have categorised as having a realistic vision of where they see themselves when they grow up, will identify career paths as either in the traditional professions – medicine and law – or in engineering, business, the airline industry as pilots. Other stu...

In the last article, I presented one response expressed by many students as to their reason for attending school. That is, they attend school only because of the initiative of their parent/parents and/guardians. I will, in a subsequent article, examine some of the other responses given by students for attending school. But in this article, I want to present one perspective on the performance of students in the education system which was shared by former Professor of Education, now Emeritus Professor of Education, at the University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona Campus. Professor Miller was participating in the discussion programme, All Angles which was aired on Television Jamaica on the 22 nd of August 2012. The topic under discussion was “Major Problems in the Education System”. Professor Miller presented some information which I will describe as “a biological profile of students in the education system”. The Professor received his early training in Biology so I have no reason to di...

If a teacher, just on a whim, asks a class of forty students why they attend school, emanating from the babble that will ensue will be several responses. The majority of students will respond that they attend school because their parent/s or guardians send them. A number of these students will be joking. But many others will be totally serious. The students who are only in school solely because their parent/s or guardians insist that they attend are the ones who are the most resistant to learning. They have reluctantly done their caregiver a favour by attending school. They do not want any further hassle from teachers with any grand design that they can make them learn. They are willing to give up without trying. I have found, though, that in cases like these when these students display no interest in my subject I have had to find other means of engaging them than by only presenting a lesson to them in class. I have found in most of these cases that it is prudent to get to k...