I am hearing that the performance of our GSAT pupils still leaves much to be desired in certain areas including, as usual, mathematics, English and social studies et al. Great blame is being placed on our teachers who have not been able to pull up the performance of the pupils, between 2003 and now, to anything approaching the 2015 target of 85 per cent passes.

Apparently the USAID is to send maths specialists to teach the teachers and they are concentrating their efforts on the schools that are performing the poorest.

My humble suggestion (and I hasten to add that this is not the result of original thinking) is that we look at the best performers and find out what they are doing right.

Moreover, and in my mind this is the secret to success for these children, it has been repeatedly shown that those that do best, as a group, have the most involved parents.

Two sets of books

I happen to be acquainted with the mother of a child who received one of the scholarships a few years ago. She bought two sets of the GSAT books. One set remained by her bedside so that she could study them in her sleepless moments. She was totally invested in her child's performance.

How are our parents to do this when they are busy eking out a meagre living, probably pregnant with the next child and not having the support of a partner? Is this not the life situation of the majority of our so-called 'parents'? Is there political or societal will to do anything about this? Anyway, that is for another time.

In short, in order for our children to do well, they must have at least one parent (not simply a sperm donor or incubator) and until this occurs, in this and other societies (remember our great neighbour to the north is facing similar problems), we will continue to fight the same dragons forever and ever.

I am, etc.,

ROSEMARY MURRAY

artemis@cwjamaica.com

Kingston 8