355 teachers take PSE – the results are controversial!
Posted: 02/03/2007 - 09:41 AM
Author: Adele Ramos
In October and November last year 355 teachers from across Belize got to sit the very same PSE (Primary School Examination) that Standard VI students had sat earlier that year. Surprisingly, many of them admitted that they were feeling quite nervous about sitting that exam. They knew when they went to the three-day PSE Training Workshop that they were going to get a test, but little did they know that for an hour or two they would have to wear the shoes of the very children they teach in the classroom.
Today the scores the teachers earned is the subject of controversy, but Ms. Yvonne Davis, Principal Education Officer in charge of the Examination Section in the Ministry of Education, said it was not really about whether teachers would pass or fail the test, but how well they themselves are able to handle two areas that have proved to be the biggest problem areas for their students – those are letter and composition writing, and problem solving. The results were revealing.
In Math problem solving the national average was 34.2 out of a 50. Only 12 teachers got a perfect score, but most of them earned more than 60% on the test. Rate, ratio and proportion was the weakest area for teachers.
On the letter writing part of the English PSE the national average was 14.5 out of 20 points. For composition the average was 18.5 out of 30. 96% of teachers ranked between adequate (50%) to excellent (100%) on letter writing, but they didn’t do so well on composition. Eighty-five percent score 50% or more of the possible 30 points.
In the report on the teachers’ assessment, some of the common errors were highlighted so that educators will know what to do to correct themselves.
On Wednesday the Ministry of Education held a press conference at which it discussed the results of the teachers’ assessment, but it went further to highlight what could be done to improve performance.
The first recommendation is to establish a profile of the Standard VI teacher that should be used in schools. This means that a Standard VI teacher should have at least three years teaching experience in the upper division (Standards IV, V or VI), and have no less than an associate degree in primary education.
The report notes that a substantial amount of the teachers at the Standard VI level are untrained, and a good number of them were teaching for the first time straight out of sixth form. Only 52% of teachers at that level are fully trained or have acquired higher-level education, the report said.
The second recommendation is for continued professional development, meaning that teachers should attend summer training sessions that must include PSE core subjects, and during these sessions they should be administered performance tests, such as the PSE administered to them last October and November.
What Davis also reports is that a majority of the teachers who had attended last year’s workshop did not turn out at follow-up sessions given in their districts in January and February. Furthermore, some of those who did show up did not attend the entire event. Follow-up sessions are the third recommendation coming out of the PSE Training Workshop exercise.
Davis told us that they gave the initial workshop to all Standard VI teachers because they want students to improve in these priority areas. There have been a lot of complaints about students not doing well on the PSE, and the Examination Section has been getting a lot of blame, she added.
Before the training workshop the Unit had spent months sifting through a series of textbooks that the teachers themselves have been using in the classroom and came up with two booklets that were presented to teachers at the workshop. One focuses on every broad area that should be covered in problem solving; the other covers the specific testing areas for composition and letter writing.
The hope now is that, armed with these summary booklets, teachers can better train their students in the areas they are required to know at the end of Standard VI – areas that they will be tested on when they sit the PSE.
Davis is optimistic, and says that she anticipates a measurable but small improvement as early as this year. She expects to see more substantial improvements in the years ahead now that the problem solving and letter writing/composition writing manuals have been made available to Standard VI teachers around the country.
This year students will sit the English and Science papers on March 26, and the Math and Social Studies on May 7.
But a lot will also depend on the individual teachers and the school administrations to prepare their students for the PSE, because Davis acknowledges that not every teacher who can “ace” a test can necessarily impart all he or she knows to students. On the flip side, a teacher that does not earn a perfect score might impart even his or her imperfect knowledge to students very effectively.
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