Education results fall in 2016 data report
(CNS): A report by the Department of Education Services reflecting the internal tests and external exam results for students in government schools in the 2015-16 academic year show a decline in achievement. The authors of the report said the percentage of students in Year 12 attaining five or more subjects including English and mathematics at Level 2 has doubled when compared to the 2012. But despite a positive growth trend, there is a marginal decline in performance for the last academic year.
The document was published without any press release and posted on the ministry website last week. Given the central role that education has played in the election campaign, the report’s results are likely to be seized upon by the government’s opponents.
While the data reflects the continuing low standards of students in government schools who are not achieving the expected standards, the data report shows a massive improvement over the last four years, but it is difficult to measure the impact of specific interventions on exam results because of the time it takes for change to take effect.
Interventions in primary school are not reflected in exam results for a decade, while interventions in Year 10 could reflect immediately for some students taking exams in Year 11.
But either way, the data report reveals huge differences between potential and performance for children in Year 6 who took Cognitive Abilities Tests (CAT4) to gauge their potential and identify strengths, weaknesses and learning preference.
The CAT4 assessments suggest that at the end of primary school approximately 82% of our students should be achieving National Curriculum (NC) Level 4 or higher in English and that 84% of our students should be achieving NC Level 4 or higher in mathematics. The actual attainment for the current Year 6 cohort stands at 59% in English and 52% in mathematics.
While the gap between potential and performance improves as kids go through high school, the numbers show that there was a decline in exam performance over the 2015 figures, where 38% of students achieve the five passes compared to 36% at the end of the last academic year.
The authors point to poor maths performances seen throughout the region last year and most students in Year 11 remain below the predicted norms defined by the CAT4. Data shows that 20% more students are passing at least five exams when compared to the 2013 academic year, but instead of further improvements in 2016, the results reveal a disappointing decline.
Check back to CNS later for comment from the education department and the minister.
Category: Education, Local News
One thing is for certain with a proven fact.
The education system / standard seem to be getting worse.
We have replaced Teachers. We have replaced Governments.
If we keep lowering our standards for all the imported uneducated children to enter into our system, we will continue to fail.
It’s time to call a spade a spade. Some children just do not want education and some will make sure others do not have a chance. They try to ruin it for others.
In a school we can have 500 good students. 10 bad spoil brats that are criminal minded and feel entitled. Imagine a Father supporting and giving reason as to why his little criminal son took Ganja to school. If he was a real father, he would knock some sense into his Son’s head. I do not want these type of criminal students around my Child. Yet I am the bigot and racist when I complain. Stop this foolishness.
The Chief Officers and certain other Ministry Staff. They are the obvious continuation of the degarde. Same with the department of Labor. Always have a conflict of interest.
Who has the cahoons to deal with mama’s uncle, brother? And so forth and so on.
Do the fact checking. Different governments, Same education system Staff.
Education on the downfall.
We can change Governments every month and we will end up with the same results.
Cayman has a lot of sand. Let us just keep our heads in it and blame the expats.
It seem to be working for the last 20 years.
Soon it will not be sand but concrete dust that we stick our heads in. Now for a little rain.
Things are improving in the education system in Cayman but change takes time so stop always knocking educators. Here is something that might speed up change:
Reevaluate all headteachers and their ability to be effective leaders.
Think about your unwritten policy of hiring teachers from third world countries to teach our children
Stop promoting people into jobs in education for which they are wholly unsuited
Stop any CEO interferring in decisions made in schools around performance management
Stop hiring teaching assistance, teachers etc based on who they know or what church they belong to
Stop victimising teachers and assuming they can make up for dysfunctional families
Stop creating new posts to deal with the previous failed posts
Sack all Senior School Improvement Officers (SSIO).
The Special Needs leadership is non existent and nothing is going to change whilst all those presently in post remain.
Treat your teachers with respect, hire only the best, give them continuous professional development and ensure they supported in their roles.
You do not mention assessment. To this list I would add ” stop always assessing our children”. Take a leaf from Finland’s book. You will not improve teaching or outcomes by constantly assessing.
Teachers are over-worked, middle management and administration are underworked and you will find as many teachers as administrators which makes no sense unless you are in charge and find out nobody is going to stop you from feathering your nest with friends who have no experience in education. So you have now a lot of busy-bodies with nice offices who just fart around all day laughing hysterically so nobody else can get work done, talking to other colleagues talking about what church they belong to… what they did last weekend…how can we get fired that college who is not “down with plan.” So there you go, top heavy non-experience education administrators who make numerous mistakes but never get fired or never get called out on poor academic conditions and have to take trips overseas to find out “how it is done”. Now when a student who barely studies complains about his/her teachers, “advisors” know they get “points” by always siding with the students, especially if there is a imagined racial component. When I went to school, Professors were not expected to give extra unpaid classes so that students who do not study get a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th chance. You are teaching your students to not study because they know they can just inconvenience their teachers and that inconvenience is thought of as a benevolent action, when in reality it is just another way to excuse poor student behavior and poor note taking. If you think I am lying how many students for lack of being able to write now record their lectures through their cell-phones, when I found out my son was doing this, I had a stern talking to him that he needed to learn how to listen and write. He complained back that other students are doing it so why cant I?
At least the test results prove what most of us have always known but that “education experts” like Lucille Seymour refused to believe, namely, that the deficits in children’s achievements are not caused AFTER they leave the primary school system but are well established by the end of primary school. The finger pointing at and bad mouthing of the secondary system that used to go on in the Education Department, primarily staffed by ex primary school teachers led by Ms Seymour, was disgraceful.
And hereupon lies the primary problem with employment for young Caymanians in the workforce: a poor education that denies equal opportunities for school leavers.
It is easier to blem the education sistem but is not ,the problem are in the school on at home, in cayman a teacher have lest than 20 kid on cant deal with them ,in all central america countries ateacher have to deal with 50, 60 or even 70 kids in one class room and thad teacher is dedicated to the children, is her responsabilitive to see if a child is learning; on focus on the weakest areas of learning of the child, on at home we parents have the responsabilities to ensure our kid are learning some thing at school, but a lots of parents are working late ours then get jam ín trafic on reach home untill late on when they reach home a child is sleepý or tired of been waching tv or playing games in there phones the youths chatting all evening not even remember to look at there books. We are part of the problem lets be part of the solution to, these is not a political campaign or to be acusing it is our children future.
The number isn’t the problem. If the children are unwilling to learn it doesn’t matter if you have 5 kids in your class. They’ll be harder to reach than 50 eager to learn and well behaved children.
Omg, I hope you were drunk when you posted.
Way too much non teaching time for teachers. Way to much formal assessment, and way to much PD on school time. Kids are missing a lot of valuable old fashioned teaching time. Instead we have sound bytes.
Do pray tell where this non teaching time is? Are you referring to summer holidays? So we should work teachers year round and pay them on the poverty line to work with children with severe behavior issues? Are you aware teachers don’t get lunch breaks? Do you even know what PDs are for? They aren’t on school time, students are still getting the standard 190 school days a year so put a sock in it.
Could you please quantify your statement that there is way too much time on PD during school time?
Obviously a handful of kids are not the problem. The majority of kids are the problem. A handful of kids wouldn’t stop the learning. There are massive amounts of children in every public school classroom that couldn’t care less about why they are there. Teachers are moving at a painstakingly slow pace through the curriculum because students aren’t putting forth the slightest bit of effort to learn the material. Teachers are digging into their own very shallow pockets to buy materials to make lessons engaging and relevant and are met with hostility and apathy from both parents and students. The community as a whole doesn’t value the role of education and does very little to support their children in attaining the on level results. Camp out at some of these schools conference nights and observe how few parents attend these to even learn of their child’s termly progress. Teachers are expected to raise and teach the children, but aren’t equipped with any effective sanction for unruly behavior and lack of motivation constantly being thrown around their classrooms. I feel sorry for them, it must be exhausting to go to work daily, put in maximum effort, and be met with nothing but criticism from government, admin, the community and parents. The issue is not money or resources. The issue is the socioeconomic state and parental support of the students in the public school system. They treat school like a glorified daycare. Students attend school with the same uniforms they’ve been wearing for 3+ years and no food to eat during the day. These students rave about their gadgets at home but fail to bring in homework or even participate in the daily doings of the classroom. Nobody elected can fix what is going on in the homes of these children. They can throw as many dollars into the system as they want, scores won’t improve if this village doesn’t start doing its job by instilling in the youth how important their education is going to be to their futures. The activities these students get away with are remarkable. We are too concerned with hurting their feelings to do them any good. Everyone is a winner, everyone deserves a prize, everyone should do what they want and whatever rhetoric we are currently spewing out into the schools to make everyone feel like what they are doing is already plenty good enough. What a disaster.
Amen!
No, you are wrong. My daughter goes to JG, the issue is the few, not the many. There are a lot of kids who want to succeed, but they are in classrooms with so many distractions from the few ‘bad’ kids that nothing gets done. Our pansy ass pols will not give the teachers and admin staff the ability to kick the trouble makers out so that the majority can exceed. It is sad, and then they blame the teachers whose hands they cuffed. Cowards, and blame shifters if you ask me.
That is crap. Two badly behaved children with serious issues, which are never addressed, can rip any learning time you have to shreds.
Read most of the exit interviews, they discuss hardcore behavioral issues that are just left to get even worse.
If the system addressed these kids, the swing vote for attention in the class would be gone. Other systems would address and support the students with behavioral issues. in Cayman teachers are told to “deal with it”.
In JGHS there is a huge issue with the inconsistent way behaviour is managed from one academy to another. Teachers witness everyday those inconsistencies and have given up trying to address them. Surely discipline should have a whole school approach. We teachers had so much hope that things would change 18 months ago, but alas not much or enough.
This article is misleading. This report was not leaked, it is on the Education Ministry’s website PLUS it was discussed openly yesterday morning on Rooster with Tara Rivers prior to you publishing this story. Get your facts right please and report accurately.
Whatever happens, it is clear that having caymanians in charge to spend huge amount of money to see how it is done in other countries is giving at least a few caymans jobs, namely looking to see how it is done in other countries.
We need more online Phds to solve our problems.
This Lady Tara Rivers apart from collecting her pay check did not do anything during her time & she wants to go back in, shame on you. I mean, would the government do something for Education but they don not care. They only look after themselves and being so cowards and sent their kids to private schools with the public’s money, that show how incompetent all of them are, instead to fix the problem they run from it, wait until this kids star shooting all of you and I bet you you all of you will do something. Like retired in another country..Do your jobs honestly and take off your FOM (full of myself) degrees. form all of you.
not totally true, she has done a lot for early education and the younger children….in fairness there is a lot to fix when in comes to education!
I’m a voter and would like your guidance on what she has done, that was not a remnant of the previous Minister/Ministry. I remember that she took over in May and fabulous exam results were returned in June, at which time she failed to acknowledge that the exams’ success had nothing to do with her leadership. Having paid attention to much of what has happened over the past four years, I wonder if perhaps I might have missed an article or two that indicated something new and grand that she did to impact education? All enlightenment appreciated. It’s voting time and no pun intended, we need to be properly educated. Thanks for your advisory.
The programmes I hear being attributed to Tara/PPM were started years ago and under Rolston Anglin. She ‘added’ few “Initiatives” like paying employers (subsidising) employers to hire Caymanians.
She also approved setting criteria for first couple of years of primary school where the performance is already at 80% I believe, parents are more involved. Maybe she should have asked her brother a teacher in years 4-6 about the need to set standards at that level to ease burden on students and teachers as they enter middle school with low passing grades, reflection on teachers, parents and students.
You can’t lead a ministry if the civil service can see through the B.S. and that should help voters and new MLAs when selecting candidates and new Cabinet.
I agree with you, she has done a lot in my opinion. I have been here 4 years and have seen huge improvements in the education system these include:
More interventions for sen children ( math recovery, phonics RTI, behaviour interventions)
More supportive staff to run the interventions who are actually educated to a high enough level to run them
Better facilities at some school including more classrooms
Literacy and numeracy coaches to support teachers
A science lead for the island
Training ( too much) for teachers
Cayman needs to stop bashing educators and start looking at the social services side of things. Educatators are there to teach we are not there to make sure that children are fed, take their medication, have enough sleep, live in a safe loving environment. Whoever is the minister for social services needs to put some money into decent trained foster carers so that when a child is being neglected there is at least a choice of placing him somewhere else until their parents sort themselves out. Too many children are negelcted from the love, food and care in this country. For such a wealthy country there are too many children living in poverty. That is not the fault if schools! The schools do not contain a load of Harry Potters who can cast magic spells on all the children to make them do well in all areas. These children have poor mental health because of where they live, who they live with and what is happening in their homes, not because of school. Anxiety, depression, defiance disorders, personality disorders are all rife amongst the children of Cayman. It’s sad, but true, I see it everyday!
Well she did do something very well. As the Minuster if Education she has failed to talk to education stqff over the past two years. I wonder why? Perhaps ahe disliked all the evidenced based research which dispelled her educational beliefs.
“Pay cheque”. Cayman is not in America last time I checked. You check your pay cheque.
Maybe it would also help to monitor the schools surroundings. Drugs are openly available on walkers road, smoking is not stopped on campus and cyber bullying is a daily reality. We need proper security on school campus. Also, Tara put a block on interested Charter Schools – why? losing face? there are solutions out there, we just need to embrace them and move forward. I am hoping for the new government with an open mind!
Charter schools are nit the answer. Siund oarenting, high quality teaching and an exoectation if excellence woukd go a long way
to fixing at keast some of the problems.
Drunk much?
An expectation of excellence! Wouldn’t that have to exist first in the civil service, and isn’t the joy of charters schools that the schools would be removed from an organization that shows no expectation of excellence in its staff, even the 100K earners…..
Yep! And whenever we call police about the weed smokers around the school they tell us to call a truancy officer…who is responsible for these children, if not all of us???
Sorry, but you can’t teach motivation!
The report is in the Ministry website.
I have to say most of the report is excellent news. I for one believe that Tara must be given another term.
Even her cannot fix a broken system in 4 years.
The resources she has invested in early childhood education with reap benefits in the years to come.
Tara you have 5 votes coming from my household.
If you had any kind of education, and therefore an understanding of democracy, you would not be deciding who in your house votes for whom…they would be making their own decisions.
“Even she”…crikey!
CNS you stated in your article that the report was leaked but the report is on the Ministry’s website.
Where do the other end up without literacy. What do you educate them on.
Poor Tara the PPM stooge Are we surprised she says she got west bay North wrapped up and in the bag i hope the voters see just how incompetent you are.
She is definitely with PPM. She just can’t declare as such being a WBayer.
She would never get a vote form her fellow bayers if she did that. But she can’t hide her allegiance hunny. It’s clear as day…ahhh, good ol’ politricks.
She’s running in West Bay South…unfortunately…her last four years might have flown better in other districts.
Not surprising at all. It appears to be more concern about ghosts and gays than improving our education system.
You are speaking of the opposition here not the failure of a Government that the PPM has become. Put this one on Tara and the Cabinet!!!
Cns your headline education results fall, then in your second sentence you contradict that by telling us about a 100% rise in results. At the very least your headline should reflect this. A better heading would read, 2016 exams show mixed results. Thank you.
You read where it said declined in 2016 right? The uphill momentum has ceased. Despite her getting an even larger budget. The money isn’t the problem.
A trend cannot be said to have ceased by having one year of downtick. We would have to wait 1-2 more years to be able to say this.
How many more kids suffer for this “Downtick”, or will suffer each coming year for that matter?
Sound like u have a case of ticks!
The CAT4 assessments suggest that at the end of primary school approximately 82% of our students should be achieving National Curriculum (NC) Level 4 or higher in English and that 84% of our students should be achieving NC Level 4 or higher in mathematics. The actual attainment for the current Year 6 cohort stands at 59% in English and 52% in mathematics.
While we would all like to see better results, if we subjected the 60+ candidates contesting this election to the same assessment, an attainment anywhere near 50% would shock the hell out of me. So they can all give their opinions on education in Cayman, but charity begins at home.
Well said 10:38am. Please RUN for office! If eligible that is. 🙂
Many generations born here, but unfortunately my wife threatens to have me committed if I run for office, and she might be able to put up a good case if she can find an independent psychiatrist for the evaluation.
Most of the politicians in Cayman might not be at the stage where we can have them committed, but if there is a way to have them all committed to a mental institution en masse, I believe many of them would have a hard time convincing any psychiatrist to release them.
However, as I approach retirement age she might be persuaded by the free pension and health insurance for life after just two terms of seat warming in the LA.
We all have eyes…and see what is going on with kids…this is blimming obvious and must be fixed if Cayman is to survive and thrive
I have watched numerous debates in regards to the upcoming election. At each debate education was a topic, however, none of the candidates has addressed the real issue that is rampant in our schools, which is the lack of control over discipline and the lack of accountability put on parents for their kids behavior.
I get that this is not an attractive sound bite during election, but somebody got to spell out the truth! A lot of voters may not want to hear that because they have been led to believe that they have no responsibility when it comes to their kids education, but a lot of other voters would like to see that students who lack discipline and appropriate behavior and their parents are held responsible cause everyone at school (teachers, staff and motivated kids) are suffering the consequences of those kids who are out of control
Why aren’t the handful of out of control children placed in programs specifically designed to help those children. Why are they left to run amok in the regular education classroom, where everyone suffers, and learning is hindered. For the amount of money we spend, on crappy results, we should have quality intervention programs in place.
Because silly, it is not a hand-full; it is the flipping majority!
You see the problem? We don’t have a few bad apples; we only have a few GOOD apples. Please don’t take offence, if we are to fix the issues we must first be willing to accept responsibility as parents, teachers, facilitators etc.
10:14am hit the nail on the head. No politician, ever, is going to commit political suicide by talking the truth when it comes to education. Parents are the issue with regards to poor behavior and declining academia.
Some parents aren’t fit to be parents. They neglect their children, by not feeding them 3 proper meals a day, which includes snacks in between; send them to school on an empty stomach, dirty and torn uniform etc. and not having slept much the night before.
Some girls are not even taught about their menstrual cycle and accidents happen at school and the teachers and facilitators have to deal with it!
Parents are the problem, or should I say lack of proper parental guidance.
I have seen first hand, single mothers who have more children than they can count, come to the school completely done-up; nails done, hair done, brand-new car…..whilst their child is starving, wearing a worn and torn uniform and is expected to be an A student.
Why are you sending your child to school with an IPHONE but no lunch?
This sick and disturbing cycle which only puts a strain on the entire society, must stop!!!!
I agree with you and I have labeled a large majority of irresponsible parenting in West Bay to McKeevamania !!
Until EVERYTHING 2:10 stated is confronted head-on (and I mean identified and addressed by making it task #1), expect the same if not worse in schools. It’s the fleeting truth that no one wants to accept and we knowingly sweep it under the rug
Okay you are correct that it is the majority, but the above poster should not be insulted.
You write “For the amount of money we spend, on crappy results, we should get better quality intervention programs in place”. You don’t spend anything on government education! I send my kids to a private school, where discipline is not an issue, and pay the EXACT same duty and govt fees as you do. Nothing is going to change until people sending their children to Govt school invest their time and attention on their children’s education. You have to show your kids you care and push them to behave well and apply themselves.
The problem is and always will be the island culture. You expect the teacher to do WHAT with a 7 YEAR OLD smoking dope. They see parents aunts uncles older siblings carrying guns, smoking dope, abusing each other in every way possible. Then expect throwing a bunch of money to fix it. Blame the teachers, blame the gov. but for god’s sake don’t look in the mirror. ONLY THE PARENTS CAN FIX THIS, IT STARTS AND ENDS IN HOMES.
If you truly believe that we are only dealing with a handful of kids who are causing issues at school, I suggest you go one day and stand outside around the back of John Gray and observe what is going on there. It’s truly frightening. As long as we as a country continue to put our heads in the sand and get offended that people are telling us the truth, I don’t care how many fancy buildings you build or how expensive the teaching staff is – NOTHING will change.
I have a kid at JGHS and let me tell you the pick up public is fast and organized. Probably the one and only thing they have right at John Gray, so clearly you do not have first hand experience. Prep causes nearly all the traffic mess. Catholic has a huge car park, and their pick up moves swiftly, although selfish drivers do block Walkers road from St. Ignatius as well. But nothing like Prep.
This is absolutely abysmal. We continue to ignore the social failings at the “home level” for the 62% of students that are failing to meet the required minimum performance standard. At some point we need to look at the permissive neglect and inter-generational attitudes that hold our kids back to become future crime problems. Our candidate discussion should be on the topic of birth control use and availability rather than “school” or “teacher” failings. The right-wing church zealots that influence the restricted availability of birth control should bear the social cost of creating generations of unwanted/emotionally abused and intellectually-stunted children. These kids are the demographic most prone to lashing out against the machine that has failed them – whether it be dirt bike wheelies, gang affiliation, robberies, and/or the continuing cycle of unplanned teen pregnancies.
Legalize abortion…
Family planning is a better idea – moms should get their pubescent daughters on the pill and dads (were there are any) should give little Johnny a pack of condoms. Happy Birthday son. Avoiding pregnancy eliminates any need for an abortion and prevents spread of STDs as well.
No dad not there, bobo. Him long gone about his business on to the next stupid woman.
So true.
For a little place that has probably spent close to $1,000,000,000 (yes that’s billion with a big big “B”) on public education over the past forty years (including over $100,000,000 on a single high school campus and an annual budget of more $30,000,000) we have very little to show for it.
Of course, no one is accountable or responsible for this mess and showy ribbon cuttings are the only solution as far as the politicos and civil servants are concerned.
The uncaring parents and shameless society without expectations is to blame.
That money does not go to teachers, but you can find administrators and presidents and supervisors at all levels living in luxury,buying new cars every few years, maxing out their health benefits, and traveling galore to conferences, building contracts to their buddies and spreading the wealth to their middle-management cronies so they can I keep it going and ignore the very teachers that are on the front lines..
Yet PPM want to give school principals full discretion to allocate their cash as they see fit.
The SSIO’s were brought in to help headteachers become better leaders, classroom assistants were brought in to help teachers teach but that largely has failed too, Sencos were brought in to help schools with disruptive behaviour and/or children with special needs, when that did not work, school inclusion specialists were brought in. And on and on we go hiring more and more people and still the system is broken. Ask yourself why, is it the quality of the hiring, is it the quality of the candidates, is it a systemic problem of bad leadership. If a CEO could be hired after failing miserably at JGHS and this is reflected in other posts, could this be the problem. To be honest I do not know which but you can be sure no one in authority will adress the underlying issues ir allow an open and honest dialogue. It all also reflects on the complete failure of the Performance Management System.
Really? I was at school yesterday and the principal was driving a ratty minivan, using an even rattier tablet with a duck taped cover. I think the money is staying closer to home.
Please just offer every Caymanian student in households earning less than $100,000 p.a. voucher for $10,000 to spend at any licensed private school that will accept them in the Cayman Islands. Make that quality education available to all, and then concentrate on helping the students left in Government Schools to raise their standards and help with special needs. There will be lots of extra money because right now Government is spending much more than $10,000 per student.
Perhaps the government can explain why they declined the Bill and Melinda Gates offer to take over the management and operation of Government Schools, for free.
9.35am Could you supply us with proof of this offer and Government’s rejection.
Bottom line: no matter how good an education system reform strategy is, it has to have buy-in and be implemented properly over time. Problem: if you don’t have strong, decisive, effective leadership that takes a long-term view and understands that they have to bite the bullet, take action and stick with it long after a 4 year government cycle, then it just won’t work. It is all achievable, but not without the right leadership and willing (and qualified) team to get it done. And whilst the politicians and civil servants are chasing their tails, the children (and society) continue to suffer.
I don’t think the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has anything to do with public schools, but if they are interested in a venture in the Cayman Islands I will offer myself up for adoption.
Regrettably $10,000 does not go very far in Cayman’s private school landscape. There are some scholarships available. Still, many middle income households (esp permit holders) making less than $100,000 per year make it work without handouts of any kind. These are households making financial sacrifices and are thus deeply involved and invested in the success of their children. They are foregoing trips and not buying flashy status symbols. Maybe that’s the difference. Cayman’s best private schools are operating at full capacity with wait lists.
$10,000 will cover the fees at Cayman Prep. If there are more students than the private sector can handle, they will build more schools. That is the joy of supply and demand economics.
Tara we told you stop following the PPM now you have become an enormous failure time for West Bay to vote your @$$ out
Main Man I guess she faied to maintakn the UDP standards. But wait that is a good thing since voters rejected those standards in 2013.
You read the bit where it says the exam pass rate is twice what it was in 2012? So whilst the rate is still bad, and slipped 2% from last year, to say they have not maintained UDP standards is complete BS. They have improved on them by 100%. No fan of the governments education program, but try and stick to facts instead of just making stuff up.
Jotnar I agree with you 100%. My comment was my attempt at sarcasm, unfortunately the printed medium is not usually the best method to deliver it.I was suggesting that the the UDP standard was a poor one and hence the mention of rejection at the polls.