International Consultant Commends Local Education System

Managing Consultant of Global Management Services Limited and Caribbean Applied Technology Centre Limited, Dr. Henley Morgan has said that despite the inherent challenges, the island’s education system remained commendable.
Dr. Morgan was speaking at the 15th Annual Conference of the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education themed ‘Assessing for Quality: The Tertiary Imperative’. The Conference was held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.
He stated that, while “it has become fashionable to beat up on the education system, persons are forgetting the centres of excellence existing throughout the system and the contributions of the persons who working against the odds manage to create little miracles”.
“The education system is faced with a twin dilemma like no other and must transform itself even as it transforms the nation,” he noted, pointing to the existence of challenges on a global, technological, financial and social scale.
“While there are huge challenges to overcome, panic is unhelpful and unnecessary and I do not subscribe to the philosophy that suggests we need to set a match to the whole education system or go to a blank page and start again, let us build on the solid foundation that has been laid, celebrate such excellence that exists and draw encouragement from the enthusiasm, selflessness, willpower that is evident,” Dr. Morgan told representatives from the tertiary sector.
Referring to the public debate stirred by the studies carried out by Dr. Dennis Minott on schools performance in the Caribbean Examination Council Exams, Dr. Morgan said while it has served to put the focus on quality, much “harm was being done, as much of the discussion has begun and ended with the comparative data on school performance or output, such as the scholastic achievement of pupils at the end of a period of formal schooling”.
Dr. Morgan said as helpful as the activity was, “school effectiveness research did not end with assessing the net or value added differences between schools as the important work came after having established that there was significant variation”.
“As we press forward it would help if we change the paradigm from one of identifying bad schools to one of improving all schools,” he said.