In recent days the effects of the failure of many students to successfully learn Maths and English skills have been highlighted by an RBC Royal Bank executive.
His narrative is nothing new. In fact, The Nassau Institute published a public policy essay by its former Vice President, Ralph Massey on this subject in 2009.
For the first time taxpayers were able to see more than just the average results of all subjects and the details were startling.
Here’s an excerpt.
“The English Language exam for the seven public high schools on New Providence shows that 44 percent passed, 39 percent simply failed, 17 percent got failing grades and were language illiterate.
“The results on the Mathematics exam are far worse, 18 percent passed, 36 percent failed and 46 percent were numerically illiterate. This 46 percent do not know the difference between addition and multiplication.”
In other words 56% of those taking the English exam failed and 82% of those sitting the Mathematics tests flunked.
Average results in all subjects released this past September indicated that 54.33 percent of those taking the BJC received grades of D or worse.
In the BGCSE exams 51.38 percent received grades of D or worse.
More details allowing and in depth analysis subject by subject are necessary going forward so the public will have a better understanding of the results their tax dollars are having with public education.
The public system has been failing far too many of our children for what amounts to decades now. It is in the best interest of everyone that there is an urgent turnaround.
To paraphrase Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Laureate in Economics pointed out, significant economic growth is invariably accompanied by “large increases in education and training.”
