AS SCHOOLS RESUME, REPETITION OF CLASSES SEEMS OLD-FASHIONED

Stakeholders in the country have called for the total overhaul of the education sector. This cannot be far from the fact that its standard which used to be rated very high has declined with remedies becoming almost impossible. In this piece, Kuni Tyessi looks at the inability of schools to repeat pupils or students who have performed poorly as one of the possible reasons for the decay.

The long vacation that stakeholders, particularly school children look forward to, especially in the primary and secondary school levels have come and gone with many schools which have resumed on Monday, while others are planning to do so the coming week. Reasons for this have to with the fact that classes will be changed because the exams sat for at the end of the term were promotional exams. This means many things to many people, especially judging from the fact that one is advancing not just in age but also in status, level and career as the case may be.

However, this might not be properly done or achieved as repetition of classes seems to be regarded as old fashioned. It’s a well known fact that no two humans are the same. Not even the ones that have grown at the same time in one womb. This fact further confirms what the holy books have said about the uniqueness in the creation of every individual, and that is why we all are peculiar and should be dealt with in different aspects of life.

Based on this background, it will be foolhardy to expect that all pupils of primary schools and students of secondary schools will understand at once and at the same time all that has been taught them in class, and this has to do with teaching techniques and the ability to make the students understand with ease.

For while some students are science inclined, others are arts driven. That is to say that when science-related subjects like integrated science, health science, mathematics, etc are taught, the science inclined are bound to understand and appreciate the period unlike the arts inclined who can’t wait for the period to end and the teacher takes his/her leave.

At the end of the term and session, it is expected that all of them will write the same exams irrespective of what they feel about the subjects and the teachers that have taught them. At the end of the day, papers are marked, scores and grades are given and the performance of all is usually places on notice boards for all to see.

It is at this juncture that pupils and students who are expected to repeat a class are known and measures which are expected to have been in existence are ‘enforced’ as it used to be but not anymore as students these days do not repeat classes but are promoted on trial with the hope that they will improve if given a chance and this includes the poorly performed students.

Research has shown that most times, the students promoted on probation do not improve in the new class because what was expected to have been understood is still hanging and yet to be grasped as well as other several factors. It is common to note that with this impediments, the school does not take them back to the old classes with the belief that the syllabus have gone far and ironically, their cases will be different.

Investigations have revealed that schools that have exorbitant fees do not repeat their students for fear that parents will withdraw their children and wards and take them to ‘rival schools’, thereby making them to lose students who are more/less customers. This also shows how the education sector has been taken for granted with no one at a vintage position to scream wolf.

 While it is true that the economy is harsh and biting harder, should that be a reason why parents will not allow teachers to repeat their children? Is that also good enough for schools to deceive parents that their children are good enough to be promoted to the next class?

Source: Leadership