Recalibrating education

TTUTA

THE INCOMING minister of education will certainly inherit a monumental task to reconfigure the education system as we know it. The advent of the covid19 pandemic has sent educators and education planners back to the drawing board, dazed and confused, in their quest to reopen schools.

Suddenly the taken-for-granted assumptions and certainties have become obstacles as plans to resume school are conceptualised. The new realities have presented us, however, with a golden opportunity to not just think out of the box, but to reassess the nature and purpose of education with a view to making some of the fundamental changes that have been advocated for a long while.

The new minister must firstly come to the table with a clear and purposeful vision: what skills, aptitudes and competencies the citizens of TT should possess as we head into a future that is defined by rapid-pace-technology change and a corresponding accelerated rate of environmental degradation; what we want our society in the next 20 years to look like, feel like and sound like?.

Such vision rooted in the Government’s national development plan must see education as the major pillar upon which the country will achieve its desired state of future existence. As such it must be clear and purposeful, aimed at a comprehensive overhaul of our antiquated education system that essentially adhered to the European factory model.

As education personnel contemplate the formula that would enable the resumption of school, the deficiencies have been boldly exposed to jolt us out of our slumber of fear and apprehension to effect meaningful change.

From the overly centralised and bureaucratic management approach of the Ministry of Education, the irrelevance of many elements of the curriculum, the unsuitability of the physical infrastructure to facilitate 21st century learning and the over-reliance on high-stakes summative examinations, the opportunity is perfect to pause, reflect and recalibrate the education model going forward.

The mandate of the incoming minister must be to fearlessly lead a transformative agenda, never witnessed before in our history. This will demand bold controversial changes, literally bucking the status quo; schools given the flexibility to adapt a national curriculum framework to reflect their peculiar needs via genuine school-based management, curriculum objectives and learning outcomes focusing on higher-order cognitive skills of application, analysis, evaluation and creation.

The delivery of quality education, wherein each child must be treated with equity, must assume centrality of focus. Holistic learning must not just be a politically convenient cliché.

High-stakes examinations such as SEA, CAPE and CSEC have once again revealed their many vulnerabilities as we scramble to make sense of our predicament. The need to incorporate advanced communication technologies in curriculum delivery have been forced upon schools, with obvious implications for teacher preparation and continuous professional development.

Blended learning is here to stay as a prominent feature of our school system, requiring the injection of huge sums of capital expenditure going forward, a daunting prospect for any incoming minister of education. It will also demand a new level of parental responsibility.

The current pandemic has definitely shaken us from our comfort zone and must, if anything else, compel all education stakeholders to reorient their thinking, unshackling the old

mould of education being seen from a narrow perspective of certification competition, to one of unleashing innate human potential.

Principals and school officials must be actively encouraged to try new and innovative approaches to exciting learners, teaching children rather than curriculum, enhancing their capacity to add value to the society via the enlargement of choices and empowerment.

The internet has already taught us that it is not about “what to learn” but rather “how to learn.” Time spent in school should then also focus on developing the affective and psycho-motor learning domains; good decent people who can innovate and create.

Mapping out the demands of this new paradigm will not be an easy undertaking for any new minister of education, for it will not just be driven by an audacious revolutionary vision, but it will require tenacity, conviction and political compulsion to set the process in motion.

Fortunately, current realities have provided the best change catalyst thus far. The fertility of the moment should not be lost and the unique opportunity to truly transform our education system must be embraced with unbridled enthusiasm by all.

Change is never easy and will come with a significant amount of trauma – pain we must be prepared to endure for the better.