Editorial | Who graduates high school?

This newspaper is clear: so-called ‘graduation” at basic, early childhood and primary schools are comic pastiches that embarrass and ridicule rather than enlighten.

They falsely, and vicariously, celebrate accomplishments at the start of a child’s journey of education and learning, rather than at a point in the process where they have real, substantial and measurable outcomes to commemorate.

These graduations are a way, too, of relieving insufficiently aware parents and guardians of their hard-earned money. They should, by policy, be banned forthwith at taxpayers’ funded or supported institutions.

As The Gleaner has advocated, except for prize-giving or ceremonies to acknowledge specific achievements, graduation from school should begin at the secondary level, based on students’ completing a prescribed course of study and having met a minimum standard.

The case of Khadedra Worrell of Holland High School – especially coming so soon after the debacle at Ascot Primary in Portmore, St Catherine – provides education policymakers with the means to reopen a discussion on that codified national standard, except for private institutions that opt for credible and recognised systems of education accreditation.

According to The Gleaner’s reporting last week, Ms Worrell, a 16-year-old, Grade 11 student, maintained an 80 per cent average in school career. She was a sub-prefect and assistant secretary of the Students’ Council. She was allowed to write eight subjects at Grade 10 in the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC’s) Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams. Mostly, students do their CXCs at Grade 11.

NOT ALLOWED

Ms Worrell was also selected to give the keynote address at Holland’s valedictory service. But she was not allowed to graduate.

There is a common point of agreement of why Ms Worrell was not allowed to graduate: she did not complete the course, or sit, the electronic document preparation and management (EDPM) exam, which is usually done at Grade 9, although it may be allowed in later grades. The course, basically, is about the use of various computer programs to prepare and format electronic documents.

Holland’s principal, Dayle Evans, says that completing the EDPM course and exam is mandatory for graduating from the school, of which students and their guardians were aware.

“It is a compulsory subject at Grade Nine,” Mr Evans said. “If you don’t do the subject, have you completed the prescribed course of study based on the curriculum?”

Based on Holland’s policy, as explained by Mr Evans, if a Grade 11 student, Ms Walcott included, who didn’t complete the prescribed courses, attended the valedictory service, they would be entitled to a certificate of attendance but not a graduation certificate.

There are disagreements between Ms Walcott, her mother and the school about why she didn’t do the EDPM course and whether it was fully or clearly articulated that the course was mandatory. In the event, Ms Walcott believes that her academic performance was beyond satisfactory to ensure her graduation.

These are not irrelevant issues. But they are not critical to the larger issue that concerns The Gleaner’s Editorial Board: Is there a standard policy governing graduation from government-funded, or government-aided high schools. Or, if not a single standard, a standard for different kinds of qualifications with which students could leave high schools.

NUMBER OF SUBJECTS

When a student leaves high school, it is expected that he or she should have a minimum level of educational achievement or competence. At present, the most widely used measure is the number of subjects passed by a student in the CSEC exams, and whether those subjects include maths and English. Five passes, inclusive of maths and English, is generally considered the minimum benchmark for a decent job or matriculation to university education.

But less than a fifth of Jamaican students meet that standard. Which does not mean that all the other students who complete high school in a given year are without competence or might not have completed what should be required as basics for receiving a high-school graduation certificate. However, there are no national criteria for graduation.

Beyond the CXC results, it is possible for each high school to establish its own minimum criteria for graduation. In other words, given the number of high schools in Jamaica, there could be 76 different sets of criteria.

In the early 2000s, the late Robert Gregory, as head of the government’s technical education and vocational training agency, HEART, advocated for a high school graduation certificate, which, based on student’s focus, might emphasise competence in academics or TVET. That proposal was not pursued.

Mr Gregory, however, was among the experts who helped to design the CXC’s Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) course, delivered in collaboration with regional TVET institutions, mainly to students outside the high-school system. CXC also has Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC), which, outside its subject-specific exams, provides a broader certification in secondary education that can be built on.

The education authorities should not waste the Khadedra Worrell controversy. It should be a launching pad for a deeper discussion on improving the state of the island’s education, including the basis of high-school graduation. On the latter point, there is no need to reinvent the wheel.