Editorial | No STEM without English

Kevin Brown, president of the University of Technology (UTech), is right about the failures of Jamaica’s education system, especially its inability to graduate students proficient in mathematics and science.

He is, however, wrong to describe this as an “emerging crisis”. The crisis has long been here.

Dr Brown is also correct about the need for Jamaica to give greater attention to mathematics if it is to fulfil its ambition of becoming a STEM-driven country. Unfortunately, the UTech president did not address a critical first step for success in maths and other STEM subjects: reading.

In this regard, The Gleaner’s editorial board again draws attention to — and endorses — the observation of a University of the West Indies (UWI) mathematics professor: students taught in English are unlikely to be proficient in maths (or any other subject) if they are not competent in reading and comprehending English.

Dr Brown lamented Jamaica’s education outcomes last week at a UTech summer workshop on STEM. He highlighted how the island’s tertiary institutions scramble for the too-few students who annually meet matriculation requirements for higher education — passes in five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, including English and maths.

He noted that, of more than 30,000 high school students who sit the summer CSEC exams, only about 6,000 (20 per cent) pass five subjects, including maths and English. Fifteen tertiary institutions, including UTech, the larger UWI, and teachers’ colleges, compete for these students.

“UTech alone wants 3,000,” Dr Brown said. “That’s half the number that is qualified. So you have a pipeline issue.” Another 5,000 or so students may pass five subjects without maths and English, which they may later obtain.

“For Jamaica to become a STEM country, which is its ambition, it has to pivot towards maths — not for you to count your money, but to ensure that we have students who are mathematicians, who will then use maths as a foundation to become technologists and engineers,” Dr Brown said.

However, at CSEC, despite last year’s pass rate of 44 per cent, the long-term failure rate in maths for Jamaican students hovers at around 60 per cent. Additionally, between 15 and 20 per cent fail English, and most of those who pass do so at Grade III, the lowest level of accepted competence. The failure rate is even higher for English B (literature), which demands more reading and deeper, nuanced comprehension.

This problem does not begin at high school. Each year, up to a third of students complete primary education (Grade 6) without meeting competency requirements in language arts. Of this group, about seven per cent — approximately 12,000 students — require major interventions to reach high-school standards.

Indeed, at several high schools — mostly in inner-city and rural communities — it is common for more than 90 per cent of incoming students to read several years below their age and grade levels.

The situation is even worse in maths. More than 40 per cent of students (age 12) who sit the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams do not fulfil basic mastery requirements in the subject.

Yet, over decades, these underprepared children have been advanced from grade to grade without mastering the fundamentals. This deficiency becomes evident at the secondary level, with particularly severe consequences in maths and English.

There is, clearly, an urgent need to improve teaching competence in mathematics and address the shortage of teachers in the subject. But there is also the underlying issue of weak English proficiency among many students, whose mother tongue — the language of their homes and communities — is Jamaican Patois. As Professor McDaniel pointed out, this affects performance in maths.

“The critical link to mathematics is the ability to read and to understand,” Professor McDaniel argued nearly two years ago during another national discussion on the mathematics crisis. “… If you cannot read, you cannot understand, and if you don’t understand a particular (maths) problem, you cannot solve it.”

The editorial board welcomes last year’s initiative by the Ministry of Education to make reading a specific subject in primary schools, as well as interventions at some high schools by the Creative Language-Based Learning (CLBL) Foundation/Multicare Foundation. The board also commends the Grade 7 Academy initiative at the Roman Catholic-owned Holy Trinity High School, which has since been expanded to other institutions.

These programmes have improved literacy outcomes in struggling high schools. But they do not go nearly far enough. Indeed, the fundamental mission must change, even as the authorities maintain a focus on STEM where possible.

That mission must be that, by all means necessary, no child should exit primary school without being literate and numerate at their age and grade level.

Children cannot meaningfully engage with Pythagoras’ theorem or isosceles triangles if they cannot read and comprehend the language in which these concepts are taught.