Punishing success
Parents of children protesting the decision not to have a second Primary One class at St. George?s Preparatory School are awaiting a decision on their appeal to the Education Board.
This issue goes back to the early days of the first Progressive Labour Party government when then-Premier and Education Minister Jennifer Smith announced that class sizes for the first three years of primary school would be reduced to a maximum of 15 students from a maximum of 25.
The thinking was that smaller class sizes would allow teachers to give more individual attention to their charges, which would appear to be common sense. But common sense also dictates that, within reason, a good teacher will be able to teach a large number of students successfully while a bad teacher will still be a bad teacher regardless of whether the class has five students in it or 25.
Still, the decision was made and it required many primary schools to double the number of classes at the ?infants? level. Then, when the children reached primary four, the students would be brought together in one class.
But the decision contained a time bomb. The maximum class size in Primary Four through Six is 25. If fewer than five students left school before Primary Four, a single class would be too large.
A year after the change was introduced, St. George?s Prep, which had had two Primary One classes, was told it would be cut back to one while neighbouring primary school East End Primary would have two after which time the schools would alternate. Parents protested, using the same arguments about choice that are being used now. Government reversed its position and allowed the school to continue to have two classes.
Thus all was well, at least until now, when because of population growth in the East End, the Ministry has decided to allow a maximum class size of 18 in the first three years. But what happens when these students reach the fourth year? Then you have 36 students potentially in one class, which most people would agree is too many.
Generally speaking, natural attrition has meant that only 25 or so students now enter P4, but that is unlikely to happen with 36 students entering P1.
St. George?s Prep says it can accommodate two classes at the P4 level. But assuming demand for the school continues, in a year?s time it would also require two P5 classes and so on and would eventually run out of space.
So the Ministry instead proposed that East End Primary should have two classes and St. George?s Prep should be cut back to one.
The problem is that St. George?s Prep is perceived as being the best school in the area. This year, 47 children applied to attend St. George?s Prep for 18 proposed places. By contrast, 20 applied for East End Primary for 36 proposed places, a near five to two difference. And 17 applied to St. David?s Primary for a proposed 18 places.
Surely the Ministry of Education must get the message. If a school is that popular, it must be doing something right. And if other schools are under-subscribed, that should tell the Ministry something too.
Of course, parents are not automatically right in these cases. St. George?s Prep may not be as superb as the high level of applications suggest and East End may be a better school than its figures suggest. But when it comes to education, few parents are prepared to gamble.
There are other alternatives. Both East End and St. George?s Prep could have two classes of 15, or St. George?s Prep could have two classes of 18, as the parents have proposed. Either way, fewer parents would be disappointed than under the Ministry?s proposal.
And St. George?s Prep is having to rebuild anyway following Hurricane Fabian. It would make sense to add another three classes to the school to enable it to have two streams all the way through.
All of this has to be seen against the backdrop of an education system that is very nearly as segregated as it was in the late 1960s. The major difference between now and then is that wealthy black parents are sending their children to private schools too, meaning that the Island?s schools are separated on the basis not only of race, but of class, and that cannot be healthy.
St. George?s Prep is an exception to the rule. Its student population mirrors the diversity of the Island almost exactly. With strong academic results as well, it is a model public school. And yet the Ministry gives every appearance of punishing it for its success.
The Ministry?s lack of flexibility will ultimately drive more children out of the public school system and thus cause even less confidence in public education ? and that, surely, cannot be the Ministry?s desire.