CONSIDER MIXED ABILITY SCHOOLS

Having mixed ability schools is an option the Education Ministry can consider as they press ahead with plans to abolish the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination (BSSEE).

This personal view was expressed by President of the Floddn Abingdon Alumni Association, Dr. Cheryl Weekes, while speaking to the media yesterday.

Weekes, who is the Deputy Principal of the Barbados Community College (BCC), was present with the executive members of the Association at the Barbados Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Secondary School to make a monetary donation to that educational institution. This presentation by the old scholars’ group was in support of the CVQ programme which “is new for the school”.

Using the Barbados SDA Secondary as an example, she said the school could be seen as a model for education on the island and be emulated. She explained it comprises students with mixed abilities where “those children who are strong academically can help those who are a little weaker so that everybody can leave this school being well qualified.

“It is my belief that this model of mixed ability school has worked, and it will continue to work. I am saying that perhaps it is something that can be looked at in terms of our education system going forward, where the stronger students are able to help the weaker students. So you may not be good academically, but you are a great musician, and this school has a legacy for excellent musicians. So when you come into the choir or the band or something else and you are working with students who are really performing, it encourages you to want to perform and do a little more. So we believe that the atmosphere that is set is one that one encourages and pulls out of the children what they did not even know that they had.”

Weekes also suggested that specialist schools could be considered “as well because if you have specialist schools it means that the Ministry can put the kind of infrastructure in place that supports that area. For example, if it is Tech-Voc kind of school then all of the equipment [and] the necessary training [can be] in place so that it becomes a school of excellence.”

Overall, Weekes noted that whatever is the new approach if the 11-Plus exam is abandoned, “there must be a system in place that determines where children will go and how it will affect their ability to perform…

“I think it is something that needs to be explored. Something that needs to be looked at in its totality. I wouldn’t say that abandoning it is bad, but what I would say is that whatever we go into
must be a system that allows for the fair distribution of students so that everyone can have the opportunity to achieve as those of us who have gone through the system have achieved.”