« end the SEA » – trinidad education

…precisely what insisted I to the taxi driver and female passenger this morning – barely an hour has passed. I said its pressure on kids. Neither of them chose not to rebuff me. They said to the effect the best students pass to good schools. I reminded the passenger last year self thousands of students failed SEA. She retorted its parents, I in so many words said if parents were not raised well to begin with the their children would show bad behavior, also I replied who runs the school (the ministry).

The driver said even if parents are good kids fall into the pressure from their peers (the man didn’t see how contradictory thinking back on it). Exiting the car and as it drove off heard laying it all on parents.

Tomorrow the exam written.

People even local experts side with me. In Finland is concept of EQUALITY, school have no favoritism directed their way. Each student is given the same chance. I know and I spoke with teachers working private students do very well – the same cannot be said of a gvt apparatus with billions at disposal responsible for thousands of children.

Recently I feel Finland doesn’t need to apply an exam to primary students because THREE TEACHERS PER CLASS – two teach regular, a third gives INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION to slow students and guess what a councilor is assigned. I advocated more councilors to tackle our serious school crime. Teachers earn a Master’s degree whilst we at Bachelor’s.

Links here to my position –

my take on school – trinidad education
by u/tikudz in Caribbean

summary trinidad education – school reform in doable steps.
by u/tikudz in Caribbean

trinidad and tobago education reform – student stress relief
by u/tikudz in Caribbean

Top 10 Reasons FINLAND Has the World’s Best SCHOOL SYSTEM – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmG4smezeME

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NOTE – And here be the LOCAL experts. Excerpt of the article to read.

Trinidad express – replacing the SEA: a solution

The following statement has been endorsed by Dr Ryan Allard, John Arnold, Shaun Biggart-Hutchinson, Laureen Burris-Phillip, Winston Dillon, Reginald Dumas, Dr Ralph Henry, Dr Vanus James, Dr Winford James, Raphael Jones, Kenneth Lewis, Prof Theodore Lewis, Dr Godfrey Martin, Prof James Millette, Joann Neaves, Aiyegoro Ome, Mervyn O’Neil, Reginald Phillips, Rodney Piggott, Zena Ramatali, Anselm Richards, Latoyaa Roberts, Gladstone Solomon and Maureen Taylor-Ryan.

«  »In Canada, children simply move on from elementary to secondary school as a rite of passage. They do not have to compete for placement in schools…children from Canadian schools are world class.

Ever since investment in human capital became accepted as a critical way to think about education, countries across the globe have understood that schools serve not just a social function, but an economic one.

The Asian countries were the first to understand the new thinking and were the first to demonstrate that investment in education was central to moving from under-developed status to developed. Singapore and South Korea are outstanding examples of this philosophy.

In 2015, our pupils participated in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) with 69 other countries. PISA tests children at age 15 (about Fourth Form), in reading, mathematics and science. The average standardised score in science across all participating countries was 493. The top five countries were Singapore (556), Japan (538), Estonia (534), Taiwan (532) and Finland (531). Trinidad and Tobago averaged 425, placing 52nd.

We placed 49th in mathematics, and 50th in reading.

Singapore was first in all three subjects. Finland, Canada and Japan were among the top ten in all three.

In our country, science, for reasons that escape us, is not viewed as important at the elementary level. It is not tested at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA), and hence schools do not bother with it.

This lack of focus on science in the elementary school helps make us a mediocre country. Science, especially in the world we live and will be living in, should be at the core of the elementary school curriculum.

The idea of an exam at 12 comes from the English model known as the Common Entrance, introduced in the UK in 1904. That exam was abolished there in 1976 and replaced with the Comprehensive school system. Children in the UK do not have to compete for a secondary school place. The transition there from elementary to secondary is non-eventful. The 90 per cent of children who attend comprehensives are assigned a secondary school by the Local Education Authority, mainly based on residence. «