The Cost of education....

[monkeypeaches]

The governments of Trinidad and Tobago have always placed a major emphasis on education. They adopted many policies to ensure literacy in the country......such as :

1. They replaced common entrance with SEA and ensured that EVERYONE passed (did not matter if you can read or write properly once you pass...)

2. They made grade III at CXC level a pass (lets increase the pass rate = more literate people in the country)

3. They removed Basis proficiency and left General ( so if u can't handle basic you could probably handle general !!!!)

4. They removed A LEVELS and replaced it with CAPE ( its not like students from small little Trinidad was topping the WORLD in different subjects In A levels.... if they have a Caribbean exam we would be able to "get" the paper easier thereby increasing literacy... )

5. Now they are planning to remove CXC and replace it with NCSE level II.....

and we wonder why the figures are boasting that we have a high rate of literacy and we have students that are in secondary school that cannot read and write.....

[novastar1]

They want to replace CXC? Good grief. Our education system is lacking as it is.
Even in tertiary institutions, why send students there to get first degrees when they barely passed CAPE?!

[teems1]

Check the CXC pass rates, they are available online (CXC site is problematic). Or if you know a secondary school teacher, the results are published to them.

It's less than 50% pass rates for Mathematics and English A.

Quite alarming to be honest. No way we would be able to reach developed status with such a large % of the population lacking the basic requirements.

[Rory Phoulorie]

The governments of Trinidad and Tobago have always placed a major emphasis on education. They adopted many policies to ensure literacy in the country......such as :

1. They replaced common entrance with SEA and ensured that EVERYONE passed (did not matter if you can read or write properly once you pass...)

2. They made grade III at CXC level a pass (lets increase the pass rate = more literate people in the country)

3. They removed Basis proficiency and left General ( so if u can't handle basic you could probably handle general !!!!)

4. They removed A LEVELS and replaced it with CAPE ( its not like students from small little Trinidad was topping the WORLD in different subjects In A levels.... if they have a Caribbean exam we would be able to "get" the paper easier thereby increasing literacy... )

5. Now they are planning to remove CXC and replace it with NCSE level II.....

and we wonder why the figures are boasting that we have a high rate of literacy and we have students that are in secondary school that cannot read and write.....

You missed out they introduced GATE and now every Tom, Dick and Harrilal coming out with a degree from UWI and can't cut in the workplace.

[teems1]

The governments of Trinidad and Tobago have always placed a major emphasis on education. They adopted many policies to ensure literacy in the country......such as :

1. They replaced common entrance with SEA and ensured that EVERYONE passed (did not matter if you can read or write properly once you pass...)

2. They made grade III at CXC level a pass (lets increase the pass rate = more literate people in the country)

3. They removed Basis proficiency and left General ( so if u can't handle basic you could probably handle general !!!!)

4. They removed A LEVELS and replaced it with CAPE ( its not like students from small little Trinidad was topping the WORLD in different subjects In A levels.... if they have a Caribbean exam we would be able to "get" the paper easier thereby increasing literacy... )

5. Now they are planning to remove CXC and replace it with NCSE level II.....

and we wonder why the figures are boasting that we have a high rate of literacy and we have students that are in secondary school that cannot read and write.....

You missed out they introduced GATE and now every Tom, Dick and Harrilal coming out with a degree from UWI and can't cut in the workplace.

then the fault lies with UWI, not with the GATE.

the requirements to enter faculties and their exams are not stringent enough.

[cinco]

oh yeah...Caesar died today as well

RIP

wait as in julius caesar?
clearly yuh doh know when the IDES OF MARCH is

well look at this

[Trini Hookah]

i didn't even say Julius Caesar wdmc

[sharkman121]

so ermm... which caesar did u mean exactly

[uncle sam]

hmmm to be a bit controversial (as usual) , in my opinion, it's more the system/curriculum than the learners are causing the problem. How are our teachers dealing different learning styles? Remember the fish and climbing the tree? Now that fish is an excellent swimmer. Math and English is compulsory, I agree, but what about the kinaesthetic learners? Does the teaching system recognize/ facilitate them? Now remember we have 1.3million different learning styles in Trinidad. If we had a 100% English and Math pass rate, does that = a population smarter and make us more successful? NO! However, if we had 50% Eng/Math, 4% welders, 3%plumbers...etc. with basic writing and computation skills.. That would make more sense.

My plumber/ ex plumber came to change a check valve, took 15 mins and the bill was $800. How many of you brainiacs make that kind of money in 15 mins?

[uncle sam]

On another note, many of you who discredit our local Tertiary institutions... it's the same institutions that you all have been to. Furthermore, I work with expats and trust me.. they aint know sheit more than us. Actually, many of us are more educated than they are. What they would have on us is experience and exposure. We are also sociable here in the workplace and foster better team-players. Allyuh ever worked with Canadians? lol the worst. In a company I use to work, the sent 50 Brits on a staff morale/ teamwork course. Cost was north of 2 million.. whistle and I will call name

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

On another note, many of you who discredit our local Tertiary institutions... it's the same institutions that you all have been to. Furthermore, I work with expats and trust me.. they aint know sheit more than us. Actually, many of us are more educated than they are. What they would have on us is experience and exposure. We are also sociable here in the workplace and foster better team-players. Allyuh ever worked with Canadians? lol the worst. In a company I use to work, the sent 50 Brits on a staff morale/ teamwork course. Cost was north of 2 million.. whistle and I will call name

What was bad about the Canadians and Brits?

[uncle sam]

On another note, many of you who discredit our local Tertiary institutions... it's the same institutions that you all have been to. Furthermore, I work with expats and trust me.. they aint know sheit more than us. Actually, many of us are more educated than they are. What they would have on us is experience and exposure. We are also sociable here in the workplace and foster better team-players. Allyuh ever worked with Canadians? lol the worst. In a company I use to work, the sent 50 Brits on a staff morale/ teamwork course. Cost was north of 2 million.. whistle and I will call name

What was bad about the Canadians and Brits?

I said it, they weren't good team-players.. They prefer to work in a vacuum not the Brits as much as the Canadians tho. Many of the locals thought of them (Canadians) to be unapproachable, and for many projects, we had a lot of cross-threading. I know BP spends a lot of money on team building. My friend is a coordinator for Inflection Consulting, she said that locals are better team-players and more tolerant to different cultures. (based on her research) The Canadians come to do their job and leave.. which realistically won't happen unless it's a 1 man project.

Now when I say sociable I don't mean wanting to make them limers eh lol..

[De Dragon]

On another note, many of you who discredit our local Tertiary institutions... it's the same institutions that you all have been to. Furthermore, I work with expats and trust me.. they aint know sheit more than us. Actually, many of us are more educated than they are. What they would have on us is experience and exposure. We are also sociable here in the workplace and foster better team-players. Allyuh ever worked with Canadians? lol the worst. In a company I use to work, the sent 50 Brits on a staff morale/ teamwork course. Cost was north of 2 million.. whistle and I will call name

What was bad about the Canadians and Brits?

I said it, they weren't good team-players.. They prefer to work in a vacuum not the Brits as much as the Canadians tho. Many of the locals thought of them (Canadians) to be unapproachable, and for many projects, we had a lot of cross-threading. I know BP spends a lot of money on team building. My friend is a coordinator for Inflection Consulting, she said that locals are better team-players and more tolerant to different cultures. (based on her research) The Canadians come to do their job and leave.. which realistically won't happen unless it's a 1 man project.

Now when I say sociable I don't mean wanting to make them limers eh lol..

I think the most gregarious are the Yanks. Most Germans are the ones that look at you as if you're sheit, that is until they realize that you actually know what the fack you're doing and then its a kind of grudging respect.

[uncle sam]

^ I only worked with germans for a very short time... so I won't comment on them lol.. the Yankees are cool.. especially the younger ones

[Miktay]

The Dutch are OK. Open and accessible. So are the Danes. But Danes have a temper.

[limegreen]

Japanese - have their culture and ways they are not open

Korean - (Japanese attitude)^2

American - Open and friendly. Older Americans have outdated office culture. Not all but a lot of younger ones have entitled mentality

French - Chaos. Friendly ppl but expect chaos

[Daran]

Well stereotyping is never good. There are muffler bearings and idiots in every country. That said the level of passion for the work exhibited by most (not all) is far greater than the locals here.

However, I have my own peeve with local education.

Ask any lecturer in UWI and they'll all tell you the same story, the quality and capability of the students coming in is getting lower and lower every year. Despite the increasing scholarships and excellent CAPE results. This results in them having to dumb down the course itself, or rather spoon feed the students the answers so that they can at least maintain accreditation.

Another peeve of mine is people doing degrees for status, but having no passion or curiosity about the topic. My cousin is currently doing economics at UWI and when I asked her and friends (all final year econ and one business management) at a lime what they think about the recession and the economy, their answers were what I'd expect from a POB junior sec student. One wasn't even sure why we were in a recession and the other friend had to butt in saying it was due to low oil prices.

Keep in mind these are girls who spend the entire day in UWI and skip most of their classes.

CAPE is big fault of this. It's a far cry from the difficulty of Cambridge GCSC. CAPE's syllabus is actually larger, however passing the exams merely requires rote learning (cramming) and no critical thinking and analysis. Additional Mathematics which was done at O-levels is more difficult than CAPE's A-Level Math.

What Trinidad has created is a situation where degrees have been devalued and we now have a workforce that dumb and very entitled. Aside for those who work in multinationals, we have a very inept, lazy and unproductive workforce, despite all the education.

[uncle sam]

Well stereotyping is never good.
What Trinidad has created is a situation where degrees have been devalued and we now have a workforce that dumb and very entitled. Aside for those who work in multinationals, we have a very inept, lazy and unproductive workforce, despite all the education.

the irony lol

but most of these local tertiary institutions are attached to UK Unis... CTS, SAM, SBCS, etc.. and as far as I understand, we have some of the most first class hons graduates per country. (don't quote me) via distant learning.

Idk why we keep bashing our own abilities.. that why the expats come in and watch us as shiet

You on a lime... what kind of answers you expect from these girls? That wasn't fair...
When I'm liming I don't even know my own name...

[desifemlove]

On another note, many of you who discredit our local Tertiary institutions... it's the same institutions that you all have been to. Furthermore, I work with expats and trust me.. they aint know sheit more than us. Actually, many of us are more educated than they are. What they would have on us is experience and exposure. We are also sociable here in the workplace and foster better team-players. Allyuh ever worked with Canadians? lol the worst. In a company I use to work, the sent 50 Brits on a staff morale/ teamwork course. Cost was north of 2 million.. whistle and I will call name

I used to work in foreign. i KNOW that much fo the sheit allowed here won't pass in other parts of the world.

And it should be people with foreign experience who are at the forefront of developing the country.

[desifemlove]

It's also because our educational sector isn't strategic.

GATE? fine, in principle. But it shouldn't have taken a recession to cause this its restructuring.

An educated population is fine, but then it must be linked to a wider macroeconomic strategy.

But nothing will change, cos PNM, UNC, the criminals, and the public all in bed, and will forever enjoy the mass orgy....