Primary education in mess

AN English newspapers on Saturday highlighted on the massive errors found in marking the answer scripts of primary school completion examinations held in 2014. Many students got more marks than they deserved and many didn’t get enough. It has obviously serious implications for the primary school completion exams depriving thousands of students of their due results. Last year, 26,83,781 students appeared in the Primary Education Completion Examination and many missed scholarship opportunities due to this error in evaluating the scripts. According to a 2014 government survey, large number of primary level students struggled to answer questions that tested their ability to think and write independently of their academic textbooks, during the PECE. The poorest results were in core subjects like English and Mathematics.
The findings are nothing but a wake up call for the Education Ministry and the country also about the sorry state of our primary education, better say the education management system. The amount of incompetence prevalent in all sectors of primary education is a staggering reality the government must work hard to improve.
The problems are mainly due to two realities — the students are incapable of performing and the teachers are incompetent in teaching. The odd pattern of memorizing textbooks and giving exams has proven counter productive when it comes to skill-building and creativity as classroom practices by unqualified teachers stifle the children’s abilities.
Hiring of incompetent teaching staff under political influence or other considerations is absolutely unacceptable because it has long term harmful effects in destroying the academic capabilities of children at a very young age.
Examiners and classroom teachers must be competent and trained to handle and teach children properly. Setting of exam questions and evaluation of answer scripts should not leave room for error. The corrupt examiners should be ousted for taking bribes.
We cannot simply let this situation go without making necessary changes as future of thousands of students depend on it. Mere changing of the rules or system and asking children to do better is not enough. The government must take proactive steps to equip the students academically by giving them qualifed teachers with sound knowledge of subjects and the ability to teach.
Proper training must be given to teachers so that they move away from archaic practices and know proper classroom management and methods of assessment. More teachers should be hired for bigger classrooms and there should be no room for grassroots corruption in teachers recruitment. In the end, if children are not taught by competent teachers, they will not be able to apply themselves and their knowledge in real life. They will suffer enormously personally and become a burden for the nation. The nation needs quality workforce, not so-called certificate holders.