Newsday -- TTUTA
In our classrooms we have children who will become proud professionals but there are also the dancers, athletes, tailors, artists, mechanics, pannists, and costume designers. But our education system has lost touch with a large section of our school society. Future pan arrangers, calypsonians, musicians, actors and dancers are sitting in our classrooms struggling to reconcile their innate talents while we demand they work out quadratic equations.
A future mechanic is anxious to rush home to dismantle an engine, but first has to finish, in class, a 500-word essay on the rise and fall of the Prussian Empire. A future Olympian, who participated in a track meet the day before, and who is tired and sleepy, has a double period of science to get through, and then has training after school. We must resist the temptation to dismiss them as distracted, careless, or lazy.
We have forced these children, with multiple intelligences, and varied talents, to write a high-stakes exam at the end of primary level that, as President Weekes hinted, is really designed to maintain an elitist status quo.
Our children are then placed into secondary schools that offer more standardised academic instruction, where if you cannot cope you become frustrated, act out, drop out and ultimately fail. We cannot truly teach them if we don’t know them. While not denying the importance of academic pursuits, isn‘t it passing strange that having invented the steel pan we do not have a pan academy? We have the National Academy for the Performing Arts, north and south campuses, but to what extent is the curriculum and high-stakes examinations aligned to these magnificent facilities and the revenue-earning potential we envisaged when we built them?
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21st Century Skills
6 Key Principles That Make Finnish Education a Success
By Maria Muuri Jul 31, 2018
I’ve worked as an elementary and primary school teacher here in Finland for more than a decade, and spent five years as a vice principal as well. Our education system is widely considered one of the best, if not the best, in the world. Some might assume that this is because we pay our teachers the most, but according to recent figures, Finland is not among the top 10 when it comes to teachers’ salaries.
So, what makes Finnish schools consistently excellent? A curriculum reform adopted by the Finnish National Agency for Education in 2016 set key goals that I think are clear reflections of the Finnish approach to education: enhancing pupil participation, increasing the meaningfulness of learning and enabling every pupil to feel successful in their academic and social-emotional learning. The students set goals, solve problems and assess their learning based on set targets. The principles that guide the development of Finland’s national educational system emphasize the school as a learning community. These principles include the following:
Transversal Skills
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-31-6-key-principles-that-make-...