My first “Letter
to the Editor” was penned and published sixty years ago and I’ve continued
writing letters and articles for the press ever since. As my most recent touches
on creativity, it may be of interest to my followers. The subject is the
Caribbean Common Entrance Examination, a colonial hand-me down from the UK’s “Eleven
Plus”.
Life beyond
the Common Entrance
This week,
in the small minority of homes of children that won bursaries or scholarships
in the Common Entrance Examination there will be jubilation and resignation in
the homes of the majority that did not.
In this
commentary I want to give hope and assurance to those that the testing
methodology failed. To my mind, it was not the children that failed the exam
but the exam that failed the children. Furthermore, I maintain that grooming a
child from the age of nine for that kind of examination ranks as a form of
child abuse.
Sir
William Henry Hadow, an educational reformer who
in the 1920’s recommended the introduction of primary and secondary schools in
the UK, would doubtless agree. His
report, progressive for its day, argued that:
The primary school curriculum should be based on
the children's knowledge and experience, not on abstract generalisations or
theoretical principles. It should be thought of in terms of activity and
experience, rather than of knowledge to be acquired and facts to be stored. A good primary school is not a place of compulsory
instruction.
The
Caribbean Common Entrance Examination is a colonial hand-me-down from the UK’s
11 Plus. The 11 Plus Examination dates from 1945 when the Tripartite
System introduced three types of secondary school, namely: grammar school, secondary technical
school and secondary modern
school. It was abolished in the 1970’s when all
schools went Comprehensive.
As at this point in time Dominica does not have a similar Tripartite
System – all children progress to the same level of secondary
education – the only function of the Common Entrance Examination is as a financial incentive in
the form of bursaries and scholarships and as a first choice of secondary
school. It therefore beggars belief why we put children through the stress of
the examination at that tender age. Subsequent streaming can be determined from
regular class results.
As a
confidence builder it serves only a small percentage of pupils. For the
majority it serves as life’s first major “put-down”. Research has shown that it
takes ten “up-lifts” to counter one “put-down”. It is an early differentiating
step between the “have nots” and what a government minister recently termed as “those
who are in higher
positions in the social space”.
In
essence the Common
Entrance Examination is an Intelligence Test and as such it has the major failing
of all intelligence tests: it cannot measure creativity. Neither can it measure
the co-ordination between hand and eye, an essential attribute for all skilled
work. A creative answer is marked as nought. Hence, a dyslexic child hasn’t a cat
in hell’s chance and up to 15% of Afro-Caribbean children are dyslexic. To that
you can add at least 30% of pupils who are creatively rather than academically
inclined.
Research indicates that children are born with 98% the creative potential of genius. However, as they go through life, the figure falls dramatically. At the age of eight, the percentage has dropped to 32%. By the time they reach thirteen, peer pressure has brought it down to 10%, and by adulthood, conformity has reduced it to less than 2%. As individuals and as a nation, creativity is our most valuable resource. Creative thinking enhances academic qualifications but it is not necessarily dependent on them. Incidentally, the syllabuses of Dominica’s two most sought after secondary schools largely omit the Creative Arts.
Five years ago Dominica
piloted the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment as a possible alternative to the
Common Entrance Examination. As some elements of the assessment are spread over
a period of years, rather than on the result of a one-off nerve-racking exam,
it offers some improvement. Nevertheless, it still misses the point: that
being, what’s the point if all children are eligible for the same level of
secondary education.
Let me end by offering hope to the majority that did not get
a high test score by confessing that sixty-five years ago I failed the 11 Plus,
and you can add that I am dyslexic. In those days dyslexia was not understood.
We were put down as being dumb; albeit that in the year leading up to the exam
I designed and built a model aircraft with a 30 inch wing span that could fly
the length of a football field!
The “sink” secondary modern school that I attended was later
closed by the government as failing. But it certainly did not fail me, and if I
had my life to live over I would beg to be sent back to the same school. A
remarkable bunch of teachers restored my confidence and in four years I rose
from bottom of the bottom stream to top of the top stream. Those teachers, none
of them highly academically qualified, were the first to recognise my potential
in the Arts and Engineering Design. I have since won national awards in both
fields.
On the other hand, my best friend Brian remained at the
bottom of the class and when he left school the only job open to him was
sweeping up in a bakery. Years later, on a visit to my home town in England, I
looked twice at the smartly dressed man walking towards me: it was Brian, also home
on a visit. Over the years he had progressed from sweeper to Master Baker. He
then progressed to hotel catering and when we met he was the Head Pastry Chef
at one of Australia’s top hotels. As he said: they tried to teach me everything
at school but missed the one thing that I’m good at!
Had Leonardo Da Vinci sat the
Common Entrance Examination 500 years ago, this is what his answer paper might have
looked like – he was seriously dyslexic!
