Of the top 200 students in last year’s Secondary Entrance Examination (SEA), 115 came from denominational schools. It is a statistic Education Minister Anthony Garcia said needs to change and he is calling on government primary schools to pull up their socks.
Garcia was speaking at the Ministry’s 2015 SEA Recognition Ceremony at the Southern Academy for Performing Arts (SAPA) in San Fernando on Saturday. He said Government allocates most of its education resources to its primary schools and research has to be done to ensure that all students have the same learning opportunity.
He said out of the 483 primary schools in T&T, 447 are government run or government-assisted with the rest operated by private boards. The minister expressed concern that the top 200 students of 2015 came from only 68 schools and only 28 of them government-operated.
“As a Government and more so as a minister, who together with Dr Lovell Francis has been charged with the responsibility for education, we must look at these figures very closely,” Garcia said.
“While I pay tribute and we honour our students for their achievements, we have to make sure no one is left behind. Therefore, everything must be done to ensure that the other schools . . . fall in line and ensure that their students always have an equal opportunity.
“When I spoke about the role of the church in education, I think it is important to underline the good and invaluable contribution that the church is making in education, Garcia said. out of the 18,310 students writing the exams, 9,307 were boys and 9003 were girls. However, of the top 200, 74 were boys and 126 were girls. While congratulating the girls, he said boys in general need to do some self reflection.
“It is important for us to take note of these figures because as a Government, over the years, most of our resources that are spent on youth in education are directed towards the Government schools and so the Government schools have a responsibility to step up to the plate.
“And while I congratulate the denominational schools, I think the government schools must really pull their socks up so that they too can have many more students working hard to ensure success.”
The minister said for students to be top achievers, parents must accept responsibility and ensure their children’s diligence in their studies. He said teachers are also important to supplying quality education and only a minority try to sully the profession. He added that if Cabinet approves the recommendations from last February’s National Consultation on Education next week, the primary school curriculum may be improved to provide more lessons on T&T’s history.