Minister Andrew Holness is still my A-grade minister I told My Friend P last week. Whether he is posturing or not, he seems to have his head in the right place and is trying to keep his finger on the pulse of the very important Ministry of Education.

However, his 'meritocracy' mumblings two weeks ago as a description for the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) has both My Friend P and I a bit concerned. For once, we really feel that he has lost sight of the issue. If something is wrong with high achievers seeking to be provided with the best awards and rewards then Minister Holness, something is wrong with most of us. Only the lazy and dishonest do not need to be rewarded for the merits of their work.

And blaming the GSAT for the predicament that is facing our primary and secondary-school system is like blaming accidents on the 300-year-old Flat Bridge in St Catherine, that spans the Rio Cobre, when the real cause of the accidents is idiotic driving.

There is something wrong with Jamaica's education system for many many decades now. I remember very vividly when the GSAT's predecessor, the Com-mon Entrance Examination, was phased out at the turn of the last century, the suggestion then was that there was a dawning of a new era for our 11-year-olds. I remember repeatedly telling my friends who debate education that absolutely nothing would change.

Our propaganda machinery continued to plant the myth that some miracles would be created with this new exam that was the final of four components of the National Assessment Programme in our primary education system.

"The first Grade Six Achievement Test or GSAT took place between March 27 and 28, 1999. Already it has been reported that the new exams have produced a change of attitude in students, as there is virtually none of the anxiety and worry many used to face in the days leading up to the now-defunct Common Entrance Examinations," is still posted on our Jamaica Information Service website.

People engaged with the exams for 11-year-olds, however, know that this is not true and the anxiety of everyone - children, parents, teachers et. al - remains unchanged because the GSAT is part of an Assessment Programme, nothing more and nothing less. The goal of this test has not been to improve the quality of graduates leaving the primary school system; no, it has been to assess the performance of the graduate so that they can be paired with a secondary school. Simple.

skewed standards

And, to be fair, there is no other way to get to a placement system that is fair to performance when the standards that exist in our secondary schools are so skewed, with very few excellent performers and a plethora of substandard institutions. This is further compounded with a primary-school structure that is determined to assess and not to define a minimum standard graduate so that overall inputs reaching our secondary school system are at least average.

Minister Holness, that we still think it is okay to wait until a child is in grade 4 or nine years old to find out definitively if he or she can read is so ludicrous that it defies any logic or common sense. And our fixation on assessment is somewhat underscored with our passion about the Grade Four Literacy test (component number three of the National Assessment Programme). Basic reading should be evident in grade one; remedying failure in this skill at age five or six is more likely and must certainly be cheaper than waiting until to two years before the GSAT to raise alarm and panic.

An overhaul of our early childhood and primary-school system is what is required to start the fix in Jamaica's education system. The GSAT and all that surrounds it is merely a symptom of the illness that plagues our poor initial attempts to educate our young.

Minister Holness is providing what you might think is a level playing field for batches of 40,000 students of which more than 50 per cent of them are practically functionally illiterate. What will be the merit in that? You want to ensure that our country strives for a level of education that is way below average? I don't think you want to preside over that.

Email comments to: myfriendp@hotmail.com.

Minister Holness, that we still think it is okay to wait until a child is in grade 4 or nine years old to find out definitively if he or she can read is so ludicrous that it defies any logic or common sense.