Statement on education of children of African origin

Part I

WITHIN THE framework of the proclamation by the UN General Assembly of January 24 as International Day of Education, we wish in this statement to air concerns about the poor educational performance of children of African origin in TT, and, relatedly, about the poor quality of schools in predominantly black locales in the country.

Prime evidence of systemic educational inequality is to be seen in the Ministry of Education’s Academic Performance Index (API) report of 2016, which showed that 30 primary schools in the Port of Spain district, and a further 18 in St George East, were on “academic watch.” Only one of the seven schools in Port of Spain deemed to be “excelling” was publicly supported. The remaining six were private. By contrast, just four schools in Victoria were on “academic watch.”

The report showed 19 schools in Victoria to be “excelling,” 15 of them publicly supported, and four private. Six schools in Tobago were on “academic watch” while four were “excelling.” The existence of schools on “academic watch” in Tobago should be a matter of grave concern to the Tobago House of Assembly. Altogether, the API report found that 78 schools in the country were on “academic watch.” Of these, 22 were government schools, 28 Catholic and ten Anglican. These entities serve mostly black children.

A recent published study of reading competence in six local primary schools reported that comprehension difficulties were widespread in Std 1, persisting into Std 5. The problem here is that many children have weak early starts in primary schools that follow them into the SEA class. The evidence is that more than half of the children in Std 5 are poor readers.

A strong suggestion here is the need to ensure that all children participate in high-quality pre-schooling to assure them readiness for primary schooling. This may mean moving the compulsory age of entry into schooling from five to three. Three is already the age of acceptance to local pre-schools.

On this point of pre-schooling, we find one important area of remedy, since the country abounds with pre-schools under a tripartite arrangement inclusive of Servol, government/government-assisted, and government/private partnerships. Some 691 pre-schools under these arrangements are currently registered with the ministry. Sadly, however, there is evidence that pre-schools in some depressed areas remain closed.

In his New Year message to the nation for 2020, Prime Minister Rowley put emphasis on the family and the children. He said, “Let this be the period when we all return to our homes, giving our children their needs, preparing our families, with daily, emotional programmes of love, joy and happiness.”

We are taking a stand here for black children, whose failure has come to be expected, even by blacks themselves.

One place to start is pre-schooling based on evidence-based principles. Research support for the benefits of pre-schooling in disadvantaged communities is strong.

In the UK, researchers Melhuish, Gardiner, and Morris (2017) report an elaborate early childhood infrastructure with nursery schools and playgroups the main deliverers, serving children age 3-5 years old, irrespective of social class. They report positive benefits on cognitive and socio-emotional criteria.

In the US, dramatic improvement in learning among low-income children ages 3-5 was found in children enrolled in state-funded “Abbott” programmes in New Jersey. These programmes offer high-quality, standards-based curricula to pre-schoolers.

In a longitudinal study, the Abecedarian project found that low-income children who experienced early childhood education had more satisfactory outcomes than peers who did not (see Campbell et al, 2012).

In a study funded by the World Health Organization, titled “Early Child Development: A Powerful Equalizer,” researchers Irwin, Siddiqi, and Hertzman (2007) reported positive outcomes of pre-schooling. These studies have caused Nobel laureate James Heckman to become one of the foremost advocates for investment in pre-schooling in communities with social dislocation, across the globe.

Statistician Nigel Henry recently reported in one of our daily papers his finding that principals of local secondary schools have “discretion” in the criteria they employ to determine who are let into their schools (and hence who are not). Discretion of this order works against powerless, low income black parents and guardians. It also flies in the face of the “equity, access and good governance for all students” that the ministry in a recent ad claimed to have as its “focus.”

It has become almost a national commonplace, an annual predictable expectation, that black children would be excluded from entry to top, high-performing primary and secondary schools. Available published ministry lists of the names of students placed in the top scholarship schools in 2019, based on SEA results, revealed that the black child had a low probability of being placed in these schools.

Our secondary school selection processes originated in the Concordat of 1960, when we were still a colony. The aim then was to set aside school places in prestige schools for the children of the elite, through the medium of their religious bodies.

With independence in 1962 came a new philosophical dispensation, premised on democracy and equity, where the country set forth as one of its foundational tenets that every creed and race must find an equal place. The gathered children were told by the founding leader, Dr Eric Williams, that our future lay in their school bags.

Yet, nearly six decades on from independence, this country still employs the colonial-era logic of “devil take the hindmost.” Multiple variables conspire to determine the performance of a child at school.

The aim of schools is not to seize on background socio-economic differences brought by children as a function of birth and family circumstances, pitting one child against the other, but rather to offer compensatory instruction and support aimed at offsetting early deficits. That is what equity implies.

Many children are late bloomers. Yet our school system condemns the majority of them to the wilderness at age 11 or 12, often into a spiral that leads to joblessness and crime.

It is the case that many black children are born into poverty in homes and communities that are dysfunctional. The children from such homes must not be punished by the State by being sent to the worst schools.

Going back in time, there is ample evidence that black children performed well, and indeed exceptionally, at school, making their way into the middle and professional classes as educated adults. How did we go from this to the culture of academic failure among black children that has now become routine and expected?

The endorsers: Dr Ryan Allard, John Arnold, Vernon Ashby, Dr Euric Bobb, Laureen Burris-Phillip, Winston Dillon, Reginald Dumas, Dr Ralph Henry, Dr Vanus James, Dr Winford James, Prof Theodore Lewis, Dr Godfrey Martinfs, Prof James Millette, Aiyegoro Ome, Mervyn O’Neil, Reginald Phillips, Rodney Piggott, Zena Ramatali, Anselm Richards, Kelvin Scoon, Gladstone Solomon, Dr Eintou Springer, Maureen Taylor-Ryan

Part II tomorrow