Inspectors give high schools poor grades
Clifton Hunter High School students
(CNS): Both of the government run high schools on Grand Cayman were given failing grades by the Office of Education Standards following recent inspections. In the reports, which have just been published, Clifton Hunter was judged to be weak in all areas, while John Gray, which fared slightly better, was marked satisfactory but was judged weak in many of the assessment areas. Both schools, which together are educating more than 1,780 local children, still appear to be failing in teaching standards and student attainment, the inspectors found and provided a list of recommendations to help them improve.
Clifton Hunter was graded weak in just about all categories assessed by the inspectors. Although inspectors pointed to the the school premises, its special facilities, broad curriculum choices and wide-ranging extra-curricular activities as its strengths, there was very little else that the inspectors found in its favour. But almost a quarter of the school’s students are said to have special needs and the school was said to be supportive of vulnerable students.
“The overall performance of Clifton Hunter High School was weak. This was because the standard of teaching was weak and the majority of the eighteen quality indicators were also judged to be weak,” the report from the inspectorate reads. “Attainment and progress in English, mathematics and science were below international standards.”
Only a minority of students made good progress and school leaders are not applying the new school inspection framework accurately, so they had a weak understanding of the school’s strengths and weaknesses.
The students’ attainment and progress in English, maths and science was judged weak, as was the quality of teaching because the inspectors found that it is too variable in almost all subjects, and lessons were slow, leading to children being bored.
“There was little evidence of teachers preparing tasks for students’ different needs and as a result, work was too easy for the more able and not suitable for students with special educational needs,” the report stated.
The report gives a list of recommendations for the school to adopt, and as overall progress has been judged weak, there will be a follow-up inspection of Clifton Hunter within six months and then on a regular basis until all aspects of performance are judged to be at least satisfactory.
Meanwhile, inspectors found that the students at John Gray had done well in Spanish, physical education, media and a range of BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) courses and noted a number of other positive aspects.
But overall attainment was weak at Key Stage 3 because it was below international standards. The school was judged overall to be satisfactory but significant areas were judged to be weak such as attainment in English, maths and science, while progress in English and science was said to be satisfactory.
“In most lessons, teaching was satisfactory and forty per cent was good. Teaching was best in English and a variety of other subjects beyond the core. Students learnt satisfactorily in these lessons. Assessment was weak because teachers did not use their knowledge of students’ prior attainment to plan lessons to meet their needs,” the report said.
The inspectors set out a number of recommendations to help students improve, but as it was given a satisfactory grade overall, the school will not be inspected again for another four years.
At both schools the inspection teams identified a significant number of students who were too young for their school year because they were not admitted into the appropriate group for their chronological age. They therefore recommended a review of the schools’ admissions policies to decrease the proportion of students who are not in their chronological year groups.
Category: Education, Local News
If the students are failing, it is not their fault – it’s the teachers’ fault! Teachers are taught that from the very beginning. If a student isn’t learning, change the way you teach! Hope and pray that the teachers take these recommendations and apply it to their lesson planning from this point on.
Exactly, these teachers are coddled, they don’t respect Cayman children. We need to put some of these children on the school board so they can tell us what teachers are causing all the problems.
My parents never made me do anything. I loved to learn therefore studies were fun. If I couldn’t understand something I went to a library and read many books on the subject until I got it!
It seems that these days you have to force children to learn. Maybe that is the main problem? Why they don’t want to learn? Maybe it is Google’ fault?
I wonder if one day internet ceases to exist would the 5 th human extinction become a reality?
There are countries in the world that have very successful education systems, Cayman needs to seriously observe one of them and see about duplicating it here.
If UCCI students are failing overseas, then bringing them back so they fail here does not solve the problem.
Be careful what you post, the CIG from a lack of going out to talk to teachers person to person uses these comments to make big government decisions.
Put a 3rd world teacher in charge of human resources and I guarantee you will see the whole face of the faculty suddenly change to 3rd world like magic.
Such amazing comments. This problem will be fixed only by addressing all the stake holders. However what is shocking is the demeaning and frankly racist warped mentality that hiring only teachers from first world countries would be saving grace of poor teaching. Before that can be substantiated as fact, l would love to see a report from our schools that show that the first world teachers are outperforming Caribbean teachers. Examine our Caribbean region and the countries from which teachers come from, are their students performing above Caymanian public school students? I challenge anyone who wants to blame just one stake holders to step into a classroom for a day or talk with students who have excelled and who have not to get honest views. Improvement is needed by all teachers cannot do it alone no matter how effective. Parents must be onboard, a shift in attitude towards education must shift also. Getting more local teachers is also essential but thinking that first world teachers is the greatest solution ever reflects how brainwashed some people are. It’s about quality teachers and these are found in every region. Thinking Caribbean teachers are jealous of local student’s lifestyle is completely maddening . So many students come from broken homes with problems that impede learning, what is there to be jealous of. Wake up people, think straight and intelligently. Unite and get all stake holders to examine themselves. Rome was not built in a day and stop blaming and displaying racist and cultural bias as a means of getting to the root cause of the failures published.
You seem to miss the point that teachers from the Caribbean will grade easier their students from the Caribbean from simple empathy. So using grade results is useless.
Set up 2 schools, one with only 1st world teachers, the other with 3rd world teachers, Then give all the students from both the same test at the end of the year.
Yea, I know it wont happen, “you cant handle the truth”
I don’t think you understand the psychology on this island. By belittling any poor teachers with connections, incompetent management will go out of their way to defend them. I have seen department heads keep their jobs on the island for decades. Not because she is good, but by playing the victim.
You wont win being this direct.
Oh please, they can’t make it in their own countries so they come here. We pay better so don’t pretend like they do that they are God’s gift to us. Some of the Caribbean teachers are quite happy to see our children fail and yes some of them are racist. However, we do have good ones but we have some very bad ones too. We have teachers that put in 200% to make sure that their students pass their exams and then we have some that they teach and you get it fine and if you don’t oh well. When I went to a reporting session and got my son’s report, it showed that he had done 8 assignments. I was livid and said to the teacher: “I gave you my e-mail address and you have my phone number. You couldn’t pick up the phone and say that my son wasn’t completing assignments?”
Blame the teachers! No! Blame the parents! No! Blame students! No! Blame the government!
My head is spinning.
My personal opinion is- blame the internet! Good invention gone bad.
Ban wifi and cell phones at school! France just did!
Start teaching! Power Point slides must be banned.
Evaluate all children who struggle for learning disabilities! According to Toronto Arrowsmith school, Cayman Learning center at Pasadena place is a participating school, meaning their staff were trained in Toronto.
The quality of the teachers does make a difference. My daughter teaches at a very deprived public middle school in the US run by a charter group. Almost everyone is certified in their subject or has a master’s. They have installed a detailed curriculum and go over lesson plans for two weeks before the term. Classes are observed regularly by state inspectors several times a term. There is also a srong discipline system that parents must sign on to. In two years they brought the school up from an F rating to a C and they are shooting for a B. Many of these children have nothing. Most know someone who has been shot in their neighborhood. Many live with drug users. Despite all that they are learning and have come up to normal progress. If there is parental support that’s great, but the expectation is that they will teach the children no matter what. This is hard and the quality of the teachers is critical.
Thank you for posting that. We can all sit here and spew the issues with parenting all day long. At the end of the day no one is saying that the issues the teachers have to face is not ideal, but it is what they have signed on to do and should do it up to the standards set. The problem is that the expectations are low, so the standards are low and no one is holding anyone accountable – and our children are suffering because of it.
IF, as some posters have written, that uneducated parents are having kids and can’t help their kids to do/expect better, then someone has to step in and help break the cycle. We can’t just keep pointing fingers and blame. That solves nothing. WAKE UP GOVERNMENT!!!! GET IT RIGHT!!!! We have had too many years of this bull – too many governments making a hobby of this situation. ENOUGH!!!
AND I’m sorry – but a grade of “satisfactory” in not satisfactory enough to warrant the next inspection to be in 4 years. Inspector should give a list of criteria to but the schools up to code and inspections should be done each term until the criteria is met. Then and only then should inspections drop to annually to ensure things are being maintained. Sad – this situation is really and truly sad.
There is no such a thing as perfect parent.
Einstein was considered to be mentally challenged. I doubt his parents forced him to study.
How do they do it in Finland, China or japan? Caymanian children aren’t born stupid.
Yep, a mentally challenged person for ya. Was anything but a good father and husband. Had no morals. Had many affairs, eventually married his cousin (close to incest). And he disclosed his discoveries in the wrong hands, which caused countless millions of people to die!
Most of these comments are just “word salad” and many of the incompetent leaders in administrations are just laughing all the way to the bank while you fight among yourselves.
The teachers are jealous of students who live in Cayman. They are not teaching our kids, they are failing them on purpose.
An amazing comment.
That is, by far, the most moronic comment I have ever seen on CNS.
You see, you are jealous of cayman students.
The downvoters are also jealous
There’s some serious competition for that title!
Make fun all you want, you cant handle the truth.
So let us step back and look at the big picture. Right this minute there are advertisements (paid for by public funds) running on multiple radio stations saying that “it is Government’s responsibility to create opportunities for Caymanians”. These advertisements are asking Caymanians to support the building of cruise ship piers and how these piers will lead to jobs for thousands of Caymanians.
So our public education system is failing to educate our children and prepare them for the future, yet our elected leaders are asking us to support putting hundreds of millions of dollars of public money into cruise piers? And their rationale is that the cruise piers will lead to thousands of low wage jobs in retail and transportation. Right.
Caymanians used to have ambition. Where has that gone? Why are you settling for having your children leave school uneducated, so that they can go compete against foreign labor for low wage retail jobs on a cruise pier? Should you not be insisting that your elected leaders “create opportunities for Caymanians” by putting your public funds into fixing the failing public education system? Better public education will lead to better CAREERS (not just “a job”) for your children. Better public education will lead to a UNIVERSITY EDUCATION for your children, which is what they need in order to compete for the BETTER jobs in finance and tourism and hospitality. Refocusing public funds into MORE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS will lead to a better life for your children.
Caymanians, sign the petition to call for a referendum on the cruise piers and put a stop to this madness. This is a national crisis that threatens to bury any chance that you or your child has at a better future. The ONLY thing that you have right now that can better your child’s future, is YOUR POWER TO VOTE.
But that is only half the solution. You then have to do YOUR part focusing your attention on raising your children better. Stop setting them up for failure by not giving them proper values and morals. Raise them to put their education as their #1 priority in life. Raise your daughters to educate themselves and to accept nothing less than an educated man when they grow up (then see how many boys push themselves to be better educated!). Raise your sons to make their education their ONLY priority, rather than them trying to impress girls by trying to be “cool”. Intelligence is the new cool. Teach your kids that.
I personally think politicians want populace uneducàted. Easier to control that way. An educated person would not vote for most of the current crop and would understànd they work for the people, not the other way around.
Hmmmmmm…. but I thought the building of new schools was going to fix the educational problems in the country. :p Seems not huh?! Just like throwing more money at the teachers didn’t seem to either! Now I’m not saying that some of the teachers didn’t deserve a raise, but in the private sector you don’t get a raise unless you produce results.
The below statements are not indicative of teachers that deserved a raise:
“There was little evidence of teachers preparing tasks for students’ different needs and as a result, work was too easy for the more able and not suitable for students with special educational needs”
“Assessment was weak because teachers did not use their knowledge of students’ prior attainment to plan lessons to meet their needs”
In this day and age where we now know of various learning disabilities and that people learn differently (and what those differences are) – this should not be happening.
The whole issues with the education system , . Is that the Politicians don’t care to have the Children/next generation educated . All they want to do is use the Children and the education system as pons , for their political gains .
Anyone and everyone can write disparaging comments about the schools, the teachers, government leaders, and so on. But listen to me clearly parents and guardians: your child’s behavior is a direct reflection of you. Did you get that, I’ll say it again: your child’s behavior is a direct reflection of you. Choose to find a some other reason as to why your child is not succeeding in school then you are conjuring up some excuse. = Responsibility
The end~
I would be prone to agree with you in some cases. But are you saying that ALL children in these public schools are not learning because they are ALL badly behaved. The report indicates that the teaching is below standard and that teachers are not properly preparing for lessons and not adequately assigning the right levels of work to keep kids at different levels of ability engaged. The problem is multifaceted and needs a multifaceted approach to be corrected.
Failed parenting is at the root of the problems with the public education system. Many of the parents these days are unwilling or unable to do their part.
It is unfortunate that people don’t need to get a license before they can become parents as the neglect that is taking place is nothing short of child abuse. The wider society also suffers in the long run when we have so many young adults that are unprepared to take on the jobs of the present and future.
It sound to me like we have nothing short of a national emergency on our hands.
This is a failing of parenting and nothing will change for the better until parents are required to pay school fees. The freeness is causing parents to not take the education of their children seriously.
It’s not the freeness that’s causing parents to not care! I went to public school, which was free, and my parents made me do my part to earn my grades! It’s the fact that parents here don’t parent… they have children and then the children just exist. When the kid acts out because they have no structure the kid gets a whooping. That’s a vicious cycle and a true example of how not to raise a child.
The failure to provide free primary and secondary schooling would be a breach of human rights obligations.
As a old CHHS student, I strongly believe that the foundation of this problem is the open plan classrooms. Not only me but a large amount of students struggled to concentrate and learn when we could literally hear what every other classroom is doing. Teachers are not fully capable of keeping all kids under control becuase there are of course many trouble makers, if these teacher keep wasting class time to deal with trouble makers they would fully forget to properly teach those that are willing to learn.
Obviously the result was you were not able to lean how to speak or write English.
And your result is the ability to comprehend English.
If that was true then prior to the open plan classroom design the results would have been good. They were not. The education system in the past woefully failed and indeed having bright children in the public sector gave the illusion of a good education system. Creaming off 30% who go to private schools was the biggest mistake ever.
I went to CIHS, is that what you meant to write?
Do not blame the teachers. Blame the parents. My child graduated from JGHS, and was so saddened to see her friends not excel. Parents need to prepare their children for school. Children should know their ABCs, numbers and shapes before year 1. Parents should read to their children and engage them. The schools are not there to correct crappy parenting.
“BOTH”
Has one of the principals of CNS forgotten where she comes from?
CNS: You’re right. Apologies to LSHS. I’ve corrected.
Hey, as long as the Minister for Education is more concerned about hair and skirt length, rather than educational standards I can see no change here, even with another expensive school she is planning in time for her next election.
Its all she can be concerned about since she knows nothing about education and refuses to listen to those with expertise in the subject. She taught in a school 30 years ago for two years and left because she could not cut it. She and the Education Council which is packed with those equally as ignorant are running the s~~t show.
exactly!!! I’ve received countless letters, emails, “reminders” about the uniform policy at one of the local primary schools— they should be more concerned about the education their students are receiving instead of focusing on whether or not a child wears braids in their hair or a tiny spike in the boys hair. It’s ridiculous!
My son had a very neat ponytail he was made to cut. Unfortunately, his grades are slipping a bit. Don’t know if it’s his sense of identity that is suffering or just the beginning of the term, new teacher, etc. He feels like Samson and we are all discouraged about this forced breach of rights.
In the private sector if someone is not performing, they are given a written warning and if things still do not improve they are dismissed. Who, pray tell, is going to lose THEIR job over this ongoing failure?
It would be comical if lives were not at stake.
In spite of all the money wasted on salaries in the Ministry and the Department of Education all those extra layers accomplish is confusion about who is accountable.
Get rid of them all. Form a board of directors or trustees, hire the best principal you can find and make HIM or HER accountable. Then there’s no confusion. If they don’t improve the school fast enough, fire them and get a new one.
Everyone knows what needs to be done, all we need is a politician or civil servants with the balls to do it.
There are some really decent DES people. But their hands are tied. The real issue is crap parenting.
Crap parenting is not the full story. Uninvolved parenting, absent parenting, teachers from Third World Countries with poor educational standards, poor leadership within schools, failing behaviour management, failing teachers. Stop always blaming the children, they are only part of the story.
You are misinformed. The Ministry is not being consulted on anything. The show is being run by the Minister and the Education Council. Oh and by the way the failing of JGhS was made Chief Education Officer. Christen knew what was needed and voiced those opinions to the Minister and looked what happened to him. Having balls in the Cayman Islands loses you your job. Whereas you can be an incompetent teacher and even an abusive one will keep you your job if you are connected or in the right church.
OP: I’m confused, you said I’m misinformed and then made an argument that supports the fact the Ministry and DoE are the problem.
It’s not the people in them, it’s their existence. Bad people proliferate and good people are neutered and soon leave. No self respecting and highly effective educator would want to join either organisation.
Get rid of them and have a board.
None of the private schools are micro managed by the ministry or DoE and it doesn’t hurt them. If anything their independent management is one of the main reasons they’re so much better.
The reason they are better is because of the caliber of the children. They are able to select by ability unlike the public schools.
This just proves my point. If you have someone good, get them to be principal or have them report to a highly effective principal. The more people and layers you add to management the less effective it will be and the less able you will be to hold any one person accountable.
No one expects this to be fixed in a year but it absolutely must start getting better faster.
And for all those blaming parents, what is your solution? If it is anything involving the parents you’re wasting your breath. I’m not saying bad parenting is not a problem, I’m saying it’s an irrelevant one. The government can’t do anything about bad parenting.
Therefore the government (which is to say the school) needs to do everything it can to take parenting out of the equation.
Many schools around the globe have succeeded in doing so. And what do all of them have in common? Excellent, highly paid principals with autonomy and thus accountability.
The real test for judging the quality of education at government schools, is to ask how many higher-ups and government leaders are sending their own children to local, Government run schools.
What can this government really do ? Except destroy taxpayers and their money . Look at everything from Education down to a simple boardwalk . And now asking the people to trust them to build multi millions dollars pier . People we would be crazy to let them spend more money without seeing all the details for the project publicly .
Price paid for the illegal exclusion of non-Caymanian resident children from free primary and secondary care in breach of the kids’ human rights. The effect is to prevent additional educated middle class expat contribution to the school process, which is the best resource a school system can ever get.
The high school on Cayman Brac is really no better, despite the statistics they throw out, and they have no private schools so expat kids are integrated.
Do you think any expat that can afford to send their kids to any school will choose to send their kids to schools that are failing the mark? Most parents (even bad ones) want what is best for their kids – this includes a good education. Sadly government schools have this bad rep and are not attractive places to send your kids if you can afford otherwise.
Improvement is all about 1 step at a time. If you read the report carefully on JGHS, you will see that all the measures are in place to move forward in the right direction. If some readers out there want to ‘cherry pick’ negative remarks, how about this…..
A school has 3 stakeholders to it: teachers; students and parents. So when the inspectors wanted feedback from these stakeholders, what were the results? Teachers – 90% and students about 70%, ok these two were in effect a captive audience. However the parents and guardians of the students in the school who had to find the time, means and enthusiasm to complete the survey only managed about an 8% completion rate.
From this, you can draw whatever conclusion you like.
…unless someone failed to share the survey with the parents causing that awful 8% completion rate. The schools are generally poor at communicating with parents, so tread carefully on that argument. I know of parents who got invited to do an interview with the inspector but certainly hadn’t heard of any survey.
Interviewed parents hand picked by management at LESS. Afraid to ask me.
“Satisfactory”?, “okay”? All BS. Both schools are “graduating” kids who cannot read or write properly, poor in geography, have no sense of history or current worldly issues. All-in-all, they’re not properly equipped to function in most work environments and, still, nothing being done about vocational studies!!
Successive Governments have failed our youth by constantly playing political football with the education system. This Government is no different, with their recent “education reforms”
Morons in charge!!
You are right morons in charge, now they giving teachers a huge raise of pay for failing the children,
Cause no one wants to deal with your ill mannered kid(s),
They’re giving them a raise because most of the teachers, most of the time, work damn hard and have been underpaid for many years. Yes, there are some lazy ones, some useless ones and some that are both, but that is true of any profession.
The truth is, many teachers in Cayman have to be recruited internationally, by necessity. You pay peanuts, you’re going to get monkeys.
The schools are still underfunded and under-resourced. They need text books, paper, more teaching assistants and more teachers. Education isn’t cheap, but it is a worthwhile investment.
I’d also like to correct your terrible construction of a sentence, but I think I’d be wasting my time.
Schools are NOT underfunded. Cayman spends more per pupil than either the UK or USA by a long way. Teachers from Jamaica are paid handsomely in relation to what they could earn back in Jamaica. The mistake is to believe that somehow by paying more a teacher will work harder. You will not attract teachers from First World countries because quite simply the overall package in Cayman is not attractive and anyone worth their salt would not leave a successful career in UK/Canada/USA to work somewhere where their career will stagnate.
How do you know they pay more per capita? Also in the US teachers have to have sometimes three jobs to survive so I think if teachers were paid better here they would gladly leave the US and help turn this place around! And just because someone would make more money here than in Jamaica doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get paid properly, it’s very expensive to live here and that’s what they are doing while teaching here.
Of course they’re not underfunded… it’s as if I don’t work at a government school and maybe have more of an insight than you.
They’re under-resourced, ergo underfunded, or at least the bean counters waste the money they’re allocated. In any case, teachers do not get the tools they need to be the effective practitioners they’d like.
I’ve seen pay rises, but I don’t work harder. I’m a professional. However, without an initial reasonable contract, you won’t attract top teachers. I’m not saying there aren’t good jamaican teachers, as there obviously are, but ideally you want UK, Canadian or Australian trained teachers. Where teaching courses are thorough and demanding. This means $$$ or they go to prep or st.ig.
Yea and both schools are graduating students with 10 or more higher level external exam passes, including students that have won every major inter school competition including debate, general
Knowledge etc. so how do you account for that?! Perhaps the formula in those cases included the missing piece… parental involvement.
CNS: Your headlines are misleading. JGHS was deemed “Satisfactory” not “Failing”. Yes, the school has some areas for improvement but overall it is improving as the last inspection 4 years ago the school was rated, “Weak”. Not sure why so much negative plublicity for JGHS. The rating by the way is based on international standards with an inspectorate team that travels the world evaluating schools. Funny that there was no mention of Layman Scott High School in the Brac or Grace Christian Academy that also recieved a “Satisfactory” rating. Are those schools failing also by your headline?
The public schools are the only ones required to accept EVERY students regardless of ability, special needs, or behavior. It’s no surprise then that private schools might perform better if they can pick and choose which students they do or don’t want to enroll. How much harder it is then to transform a school when you can’t “cherry pick” the best students. The public schools take the best of the best and the worst of the worst. JGHS is a good school in Cayman and will continue to improve to become a good school international.
Everyone should read the facts themselves:
http://www.oes.gov.ky/portal/page/portal/esahome
Sir/Madam, your being defensive is certainly not constructive to improving anything. These kids are Cayman’s future and I for one would like to see much more than even “satisfactory”.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Who doesn’t want Good or Excellent?
Classic response from incompetent management.
How anybody can thumbs-down this comment defies belief.
It’s funny how whenever someone wrote the truth about the public school performance and intake they get accused of being defensive, but when people want to make misguided and exaggerated negative comments those are the ones that are taken as truth, despite the fact that the evidence on performance is in the public domain, including awards at graduations, number of external passes, performance at inter-school competitions, inspection reports and a steady stream of positive newspaper articles and press releases that the may-sayers choose to ignore. If you want to have a good idea of how the schools are performing and growing then you have to be willing to actually see what they are doing.
No reasonable person can claim that safisfactory is good enough. However, reporting should be fair and accurate. The poster (2:50) has presented some valid points. Although one of the schools that were named received a ranking of ‘weak’ while the other received a ranking of ‘satisfactory’, CNS’s headline dubs them both as failing. Additionally, CNS apparently forgot that Cayman has three public secondary schools. While JGHS is declared to be “failing” there is no mention of Layman Scott which also received a ranking of “safisfactory”. We should all be desirous of an excellent education system, but that should not prevent us from recognizing tiers below that.
A point which should also be noted when the reports are analysed is the difference between progress and attainment. Attainment is relative to an international standard while progress relates to the starting point of students. Unfortunately, far too many children entering public secondary schools in Cayman are well below the level that they should be. Even when these students are helped to make significant progress during their secondary education, this progress is often not enough to have them match the attainment of students in other places who would have commenced their secondary education at a much higher level. Furthermore, as the reports point out, many of the students in Cayman’s public school are younger than students in similar grades internationally. In a real sense therefore, the comparison is not one of apples and apples.
What is clear is that there is much that needs to be done to make the Cayman Islands’ education system a world class one. It will only be achieved through a clear vision and effective partnerships. Expecting miracles from teachers just won’t do!
Thank you for posting the link to the oes, I have now read the report on John Gray High. On the OES website, it basically says “satisfactory” means just about acceptable, minimal acceptability, so it’s not exactly an accolade. Having said that, the report said the school appeared to be on the up under its new head, Jon Clark, and did say there were a few subjects that were well taught. Others were “satisfactory”, and some “weak”. A mixed report, I’d say. But agree that it’s challenging for the public schools to have to take borderline-intelligence pupils.
I Can’t agree the CNS headline was misleading – it referred to “poor grades”.
They should also remember that in the previous inspection the Chief Education Officer was the Headteacher at JGHS when it was deemed weak. There are lots of issues but under the current headship of Jon Clark it has improved enormously despite both hands being tied behind his back by a Department that insists poor teachers are promoted or renewed.
I’ve studied this from the other side – the employers. And they don’t really care what the back story is – if the job seeker is not up to par they will not get the opportunity to get the job!! Employers what people that are the best suited (that includes educationally and attitudinally). A grade of “Satisfactory” is not going to get our kids jobs when they are not just competing against each other, but are competing against the world. It’s ok to expect better from our Government, our Schools (Leaders and teachers) and our kids.
The focus should start waaaay before high school. It needs to start at the primary levels. They need to identify “at risk” kids, whether socially or academically and apply all means necessary to get that kid the help they need. Our society depends on it. And if we think this only affect those kids and their families – you have only the increase in crime to guess again. Crime in this country is not about unemployed people trying to feed their families – it’s more about the “devil making work for idle hands.”
If kids don’t get the guidance they need from parents, schools and society they will get it from the streets – and that is a harder habit to break.
My experience is this: the younger grades up until Year 6 is so so. Then Year 6 they start plugging away to have them ready for high school. My child’s levels actually went down in Year 5 and the year before that he had the highest grades in the school. Year 7, he failed a subject that he had the highest grades in and Year 8, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are teaching my child crap and it would be better to home school. The teaching is not consistent. I guarantee that Year 10, they will try to bring my child grades and who cares between Year 8 & 9.
Who is to be blamed???? Our government has failed another generation of children. All can’t be wrong. WOW THE parents should not settle for this. They should march to the LA and demand the government to bring those children back to school and give them free education, free lunch, free clothing and a cash stipends to take them over the period. Enough is enough.
The parents need to do a heck of a lot more too in terms of investing their own time and patience in their children’s education.
And herein lies the problem. Another Caymanian, ‘it’s everyone else’s fault’ response, yet no responsibility taken for the appalling standard of parenting that has led to this situation.
A quarter of your students have ‘special needs’, what does that mean and how do you think that will reflect on Cayman’s future?
I dare say it has everything to do with uneducated and disfunctional families, abusive relationships and substance abuse combined with the total disregard for parental responsibility.
Stop blaming others for your failures, stop expecting others to pick up those pieces you leave behind, and stop playing the victim.
Your governments are elected by the Caymanian people. You place your representatives on a high pedestal and demand change, when change must come from within. You give these amateur politicians huge saleries and pensions yet you fail to understand the self enrichment and entitlement that goes with it. You fail to grasp the world order and first world standards, yet you want a share of the spoils. You fail to grasp basic human rights, equality, racism and discriminatory policies and attitudes, yet you demand respect.
Cayman, you need to look at yourselves and decide how this awful mess can change. You are so few in number, yet you are riven with social division and chaos.
So instead of constantly blaming teachers for your child’s failure to achieve, look at yourselves and decide whether you are the role model your child needs to emulate or not.
If not, stop blaming everyone else, and change.
Agree. How can 25% have special needs? What does that really mean?
It means a quarter of Cayman children in some schools have behavioral issues, cognitive issues usually related to maths or english comprehension, physical disability or are on the spectrum of autism related disorders.
And yes, really.
No they do not. The senior management in certain schools deliberately ensure a child is deemed to have special needs to ensure they are not held accountable for teacher poor performance. Much of the behavioural problems are because of piss poor classroom management practices.
Special Needs is also gifted children and children whose native language is not English.
It is different these days. All 3 of my children have been deemed special needs whilst my wife and I are both university educated. My guess is both of us may have been labeled if we grew up in the current climate of referring kids to specialists for issues that are rather easily overcome. Just not sure this is money well spent….seems like a few decades ago we assumed we were “normal” and plowed through. A lot of excuses….
Why is it always the governments fault? They did not fail your child. You did. And now of course you want free this and free that. Get off your azz, get involved. It’s that easy. You can’t just send your child out to school and expect once they graduate , or don’t, that they are now educated and ready for that banking job.ou should be involved in their education —— every day——. If you are educated then you would be able to determine if your child is in fact getting what they need and deal with it. Not wait until some inspectors say the school is failing and then point the finger. Nope.
Wow!
Another problem the GOV does not have the desire to solve. All the private schools are passing or meeting grade, i wonder how much intelligence one needs to have to just copy what is happening there.
1. Enroll at age 6
2. Go to grade 12
3. Core subjects of Math and English be given everyday
4. Smaller classes
5. AP class rooms
6. Remedial class rooms
7. Math and English + Technical Classes for some.
No study, No consultancy, No charge. Just good old common sense.
Smaller class sizes do not lead to high grades/success. What does make a difference is the quality of teaching, which in turn leads to better class behaviour management.
True, but smaller classes are more manageable. You also cant hide from participation in a smaller class room.
The headline is wrong. Only CHHS is getting a poor grade. JGHS is ‘satisfactory’, this means it is okay, not poor.
Yes, there are many things wrong with JGHS, but let’s not be too negative here. From where it was at the last inspection, it has improved significantly. Let’s hope it keeps on doing so, and CHHS begins to do so.
Who is in shock at this? No one. The amount of pupils leaving school without the basic written English or grammar is unbelievable. Shockingly so.
The number of pupils, not the amount. You don’t weigh children, you count them.
Shocking!
Ah I see what you did there. You are the poster of the day!!
What I did was point out the incorrect use of English to someone who was complaining about the lack of knowledge that Cayman students have about grammar.
As for those of you who have given it a thumbs down, I assume that you are all graduates from a Cayman High School.
Ed, I love the previous post; although it is sharp, it is classy. Were I you, I would simply have ignored the thumbs down because that is a clear sign of the point being missed. Your second sentence in your latter post (4:09 a.m.) is simply unfortunate.
Amount can refer to counts. You have proved you can take advantage of ambiguity to the detriment of addressing real issues. But you do “win the internet”
Haha… food for thought:
‘amount’ – “a quantity of something, especially the total of a thing or things in number, size, value, or extent”
‘number’ – “1. an arithmetical value, expressed by a word, symbol, or figure, representing a particular quantity and used in counting and making calculations. 2. a quantity or amount.”
You have knowledge of both english and mathematics. Do you have knowledge of civics? My question to you is “are you sending children to school with the proper equipment for the lessons of the day?” In one report, a department was criticized for the lack of provision of items to do a task. Yet, there has been no one coming to the defense of the teacher involved in that class. Perhaps, students were under advisory to be in possession of their own equipment, taking responsibility for their own learning? I’m sure that, if they didn’t have these at the start of the academic year, those organizations supporting back-to-school initiatives could now revisit the schoolchildren’s needs and provide more than just a backpack and a few pencils (long-abandoned on the playground). Or the Clubs could come in to school and offer lectures on how to manage resources beyond the first 6 weeks of the school year? #collectiveresponsibility
It’s not at all ambiguous. Think about this:
The NUMBER of something applies to objects that can be counted. Therefore, you would say, “The number of clothes,” or “The number of bananas.”
The AMOUNT of something refers to the quantity of it. So, you would say, “The amount of clothing,” or, “The amount of fruit.”
It’s really very easy.
Its easy when you view language through a little 3rd grade grammar black-book of mass and count nouns. In the real world where language is always changing from experience, amount can imply frequency or counts. Good thing you are not writing the latest AI for language recognition. What a dumb robot that would be.
I use 3rd grade language so that idiots like you will understand it.
It seems to work
But the government thinks it’s the employers job to correct these poor children after the government system has failed them.
Problem is two-fold.
1. A lot of teachers have no interest in the student’s progress or achievement, they are there to just collect a pay check.
There are a few shining stars who achieve top grades but what about the rest of the students? If only 10-20 of your students out of about 800 are high performers and the remainder are not even mediocre, that is nothing to brag about.
2. A lot of Caymanian children have not been taught the importance of an education from home. They take education and getting a job here for granted because often it is who you know and who knows you.
Now instead of pointing fingers and playing the blame game, the principals, teachers and the Education Ministry need to seriously review their curriculum and policies and get themselves in gear on how they are going to address this and start producing high quality graduates.
Point 1: This is a complete insult to the number of teachers who voluntarily opt for a career here on the Island. The money is never a factor in teaching, what is a factor is professional commitment and considering the challenges here on the island, it is there in buckets.
Point 2: This makes no sense at all. You blame Caymanian society and attitudes, yet you want the teachers to correct it! Explain how?
My child graduated from JGHS and I do not think even one of her teachers was just there for a cheque. Frankly it is insulting to them. All of them worked hard to motivate their students. Many of whom were children of children.
Unmotivated, uneducated parents having unprotected sex and not parenting is the problem. That, and not giving free education to expat kids. My god, if every ‘Chad’ could go to John Gray, can you imagine the bake sale?
Build the dock?
How about a wall?
Is this saying that the teachers are the ones that let down Clifton Hunter? If so, it’s time to dismiss those teachers and replace them with teachers that are more capable.
Actually it was the Leadership that was called into question but anyone who works at CHHS and the Ministry already know that.
Let’s not forget this was just done on schools, had the inspectors gone to each of the students homes you’d really find out why the kids are failing behind. I hate to say it, but it isn’t a big thing to nurture your child in the local Caribbean culture. I see more smacks given out over hugs, moms having their pre adolectent daughters doing sexy poses for photos, fathers not in the picture, and last but not least 3 year olds looking after 1 year olds without adults around. There have been some pretty schocking incidents I have witnessed in my 10 years on island that I still shudder to this day when I think about them. Until government decides to really attack the issue, locals will become less and less employable.
1) free birth control pills and condoms
2) proper sex ed taught every year from 10 on
3) hire better teachers from 1st world countries
4) invest in after school activities and lots of them
Instead of building more boardwalks or a cruise dock, invest in your future… the youth.
And parents, try harder to raise these kids with good morals and better attitudes. Love them more than anything and lead by example. It’s that easy.
Gov’t isn’t even going to acknowledge this problem, let alone “attack” it. Sadly.
They would if enough people voted accordingly. But that does not happen.
You killed this response. This is exactly the issue. I wander if government understands the direct relationship between a countrys poverty line and level of education of its peoples….short sighted. The future is dire.
We need to keep teachers that resemble our culture. Racism is not bad if it is used by blacks to defend themselves from whites. That is how it has always been.
Yikes
Since according to your logic racism is good when used against whites, then Maybe we should let black kids pass with a D or E and white kids must have a B or A to pass to protect our Cayman culture?
This poster is either a troll, or one of the prime dd perfect example of what’s wrong with what’s going on in these schools.
Utterly ridiculous you daft racist halfwit.
Typical black racist comment. There is no way on any level that racism is “not bad”. That excuse about using racism against whites if you’re black is part of the XXXXX problem and why things won’t get better.
“We need to keep teachers that resemble our culture.” Do you mean we need more Arawak and Caribe teachers for the real Caribbean culture or black teachers from Africa for the substituted Caribbean culture.. please be more specific what type of racism you wish to employ. F’n Muppet
– Muppet “Head” Hunter
Wow! Just wow!
Actually the Caribbean teachers are just as bad as they despise our children for the life afforded to them by living in Cayman just as badly as the so-called racist whites. But you are right that the residuals of slavery are always a part of the mix.
The children will benefit most from British, American, Canadian, and European teachers.
I went through the public system, my best teachers were not from the Caribbean, they were all British!
One thing I have learnt to respect over the years…..the British Education system.
It is no joke.
You are a racist idiot, and what makes you think Cayman is more “black” than “white”? The joy about Cayman is that it is one of the few blessed places in the world where skin colur does not fundamentally matter.
That was true 20 years ago, but no more as Cayman has transitioned to an entitlement mentality.
I’ve always said Cayman is not racist to color, we are racists toward other countries and cultures.
A racists trying to cover their tracks is still a racists.
Wow what a statement. Bet you would not have the courage to put your name to that diatribe
Yet you still don’t have your shit together.
Racists!
What in the F did I just read?
11:51 am – what are you smoking? OR snorting?
The truth hits hard.
Since the whole inspection is now discredited in the UK and our is now modeled on theirs, why would I pay a blind bit of attention. Have these inspectors done anything useful like advise the school how to actually improve lessons? I think not. Anyway the teachers must be doing a great job because the Minister of Education just gave them a substantial pay rise.
“the teachers must be doing a great job because the Minister of Education just gave them a substantial pay rise.”
– It’s called vote buying, it is the same reason that the Civil Service just got a pay increase to “keep up with the cost of living” despite the CIG not having increased the minimum wage
The CIG employs thousands of Caymanians, and if you slide a large portion of your voting bloc a raise, don’t be surprised when they vote you in for another 4 years
Vote buying? You do realize that the majority of the 1000+ teachers on island are not Caymanian? Why is it that no Caymanian children aspire to be teachers? Hmmm.
I wouldn’t say “NO” children, but certainly not many…
They are Caymanian now!
Many young Caymanian teachers were pushed out the system. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
We would benefit from having mostly Cayamnian teachers but those days are gone. Sorry, we have lost it. There is no going back from the last 15+ years of utter madness with the public education system.
The CIG have failed the people of these islands; worse, they failed your children and your grand-children.
You tell us. The Caymanian teachers that I know seem to be pushed out.
and people wonde why companies don’t want to hire caymanians?
clifton hunter open class rooms are a joke. alden needs to resign over this as it was his idea.
well thats what would happen anywhere else in the world!
The expensive failures of CHHS along with the cruise port will be his political legacy
Yes, you got what you voted for.
Alden & Moses
Can you imagine being a teacher in the public school teaching mostly children with learning disabilities (in a class of 25-30 kids), and doing so with an open-floor classroom plan I.E hearing the lesson next door whilst trying to teach your lesson?
I implore the people of these islands to have compassion for your teachers, they do what you could not and WOULD not do.
Have some heart for the real heroes. My heart today and always will be with the teachers and classroom aides/assistants. We must learn to appreciate that being a teacher and/or an aide is by far one of the most thankless jobs in all of humanity.
Have you thanked your child’s teacher lately? Maybe you should!
The range of BTEC courses offered at John Grey is a definite plus. Once we recognize all types of intelligences and strengths, Caymanians will have opportunities they deserve. I absolutely am not down grading the academic mindset and applaud all endeavors to meet international standards, however, the recently inspected Layman E Scott, Sr. High School has an outdated syllabus and needs a variety of BTEC offerings. I did notice at a recent awards ceremony at LESS that the subject of PE was ignored when I know that my child and others received a 1 in this subject. Let’s give credit where credit is due and stop pandering to particular parents with awards that are arbitrary. Accountability senior management?
What do you mean by an outdated syllabus? A syllabus is specific to a subject and not to a school. It is developed by an external examination board and in a majority of cases, is constantly reviewed to remain current; check CXC syllabus revisions, IGCSE syllabus revisions and even BTEC qualifications. Now if you mean the curriculum, then I agree that the national curriculum needs revision and as far as I am aware, the Ministry is currently looking at reviewing it. Note that it is not the individual school who has that responsibility. Note also that the range of courses offered at a given school is dependent upon availability of staff, staff student ratio and other factors which are outside of the control of the school itself and is more a Ministry decision.
Why did you say that PE was ignored at the Awards Ceremony? Were you referring to the school’s internal awards ceremony? Did you take time out to find out the criteria for such awards and did the criteria make any reference to external examination results or internal assessment? What basis do you have for such a conclusion? Not hearing a subject is not necessarily evidence that it is being ignored. It could be that there was no evidence to suggest that anyone achieved the required internal mark for the award for that subject. You may want to ask direct questions of the school and those in charge if you need clarification. Likewise, if you have suggestions for improving the system, it would be more worthwhile to communicate this. For example, if you feel the awards criteria needs revision, then make that suggestion in the forums provided; PTA meetings, call the school etc.
“Pandering to particular parents with awards that are arbitrary”? Pandering suggest gratifying someone and arbitrary suggest randomly selected; no particular system. I do have information to refute your statement and instead support that the school only “panders” students at the awards ceremony and this is not done “arbitrarily” but through a system of set criteria applied consistently.
I hope that is will open up your eyes to seeking more substantial clarification on issues you have and that you will make a greater effort to acquire factual information. Be careful of who you talk to and who provides you with information. I believe that it is always true that Together Everyone Achieves More.
Mmm….don’t see that students who break rules should get leadership awards. But hey, guess that’s part of the criteria.
PTA meeting? What a joke. You can make a million suggestions to that school and they have one million excuses on why not to do those one million suggestions.
Could have told you this without a study or inspection. The government schools, like most aspects of this government, are well below any international standard. With all the money that gets pumped into these schools you would think standards would be higher. Instead, we see the same waste and corruption at the top as any other government operation. Poor leadership like a fish rots from the head down.
Exactly what money are you referring to, that allegedly gets ‘pumped into these schools? Let’s be clear, the teachers rarely see the benefits of this money and have NO say on what it is used for with exception in some schools that are allowed to order their own supplies. There are no textbooks in none of the primary schools, with exception to some new ‘resource’ science books. The curriculum is outdated in many aspects, new systems that have failed elsewhere are being put in place in our schools. If anyone thinks behavior does not have a powerful impact on learning then everyone is seriously deluding themselves. Ask to sit in, in a class (hopefully somewhere you cannot be seen ) because boy do kids know how to put on a show.
Simply observe, know what you will see?: Students asking teachers if they need a pad, students walking out of class because they want to drink water or use their phone, children telling teachers go s*** themselves, students assaulting teachers, while the teachers simply stand there and take the abuse because of course what else are they there for? Children assaulting other people kids (bullying) children telling principals go f themselves, go s*** out their mother, children breaking into classrooms that are locked (yes actually breaking in by picking locks) and stealing from kids bags. Sudents that come to school to learn and are genuinely interested in learning yet can’t because of seriously out of control kids, kids who spit on teachers, who throw desks, chairs, rocks you name it at teachers. Kids who have serious developmental delays and emotional and social deficits that can not be met by teachers.
Let’s talk about kids who come to school starving, not bathed, teeth not brushed, dirty and unkempt while some of their parents look like they just stepped off the catwalk. Talk about students that straight up tell their teachers they don’t have to do any work, refuse to do work because according to them they are Caymanians and don’t need to do anything because when they get older they will get a job in the bank and will be okay because all they need is a fast car and they will be set.
Now, Let’s look at the absolutely moronic comments that have been made by some posters. I am honestly flabbergasted at some of the comments I have read, especially about third world country teachers. Let me be perfectly clear, do not try to downplay the intelligence of Jamaican educators, these are the same teachers that are educating their own in their own country and their kids come out with 15 and more passes, this also occurs with Jamaican parents living in Cayman as their kids also come out with record number passes. Just watch another of our high school graduations and observe for yourself the kids who shine. See the thing is most of these third world countries produce first rate, world class leaders something first world countries can’t accept. I mean imagine, you come from ‘nothing’ and yet are so bright, boggles the mind doesn’t it?!
Why? Because these are kids who know and feel the impact of struggle, they are not born with diamond crusted spoons in their mouths, they had to struggle through life. No one handed anything to them, they are not being babysat by technology, but sit under street lamps studying into the wee hours of the night. These are people who have a deep running thirst to truly apply themselves, they see themselves going places and set goals to get there and never let anything deter them until they have even overachieved their goals. They are intellectual warriors.
Before we spew hateful racists comments, which shows people absolute lack of intellect, let’s look at these supposed third world countries shall we, India, this country produces and continues to produce some of the most intelligent human beings the world has ever seen. This can be applied to many other third world countries as well that lack the glossy wealth of first class countries. Jamaica students continue to grossly outperform their Caymanian counterparts and yet both are being taught the same content. Many schools in America continue to fail, yet they are first world countries. Education can be a very slippery slope to maneuver, and there are no easy fixes for Cayman. By the way there have been first world country (white) teachers in our school and most of them run for the hills once they get a taste of the classroom. We must think before we make these broad sweeping statements that will not be the answer to change.
The education of our kids have changed, kids will not learn the way we did anymore. They are the tech generation, that is how they will learn. It almost seems as their brains have been hardwired to function better with technology. Seemingly, babies even know how to use technology now. I agree with one poster, Government needs to invest in sending Caymanian teachers abroad to countries that have world class education systems like Canada, Finland, Japan, China, Russia and let these teachers shadow teachers for no less than 2 years. They need to learn the ins and outs of what makes these systems and educators successful.
Please understand that I know the system is flawed, but there are people in the government that truly want the best for our kids, but are not anyplace of power to make changes. There are teachers that know what is wrong with the system but their voices are not to be heard and always fall on deaf ears. I know that not every single educator in or schools gives their very best to the best which is our youth.
Yet on the other hand there are teachers who slave day and night to provide the best that they can with what little they have to our kids. Teachers who feed your kids out of their pockets and never ever get a thank you. Teachers and schools that clothe your kids and never get a thank you. Schools who have staff stay until after 6pm in the night because someone forgot they had a child at school. Schools that have staff come to school from 6am in the morning to watch your kids because that is what time some parents drop their kids off at. Teachers that take time out to help your kids with their ‘homework and projects because they will never receive the help at home. Teachers who opt to take underprivileged kids on field trips, pay their way, and feed them.
There are so many things that great teachers do that continue to go unnoticed. Do you know the strain it puts on those teachers personal lives because the vast majority of their time is spent in schools? They are there during summer break, weekends, holidays you name it.
It saddens me that clearly as Caymanians we still have that slave master mentality, where we were trained to believe ‘if it ain’t white, it ain’t right’ color does not a exceptional teacher make. We first need to take the weeds and clutter out of our own minds and stop thinking in terms of color, the world already has enough hate in it, and alot of self-hatred especially. What are we teaching the new generations that the color of our skins still matters?!! That one race is superior to another?! Come on people stop with the insanity. Build a better future for our kids, one whose foundation is not built on hate but tolerance, acceptance and love.
Caymanians don’t have a slave master mentality. Anyone who says that is from another Caribbean country. The slave owners in Cayman were very few. I didn’t teach my child anything about colour but one of the teachers from a Caribbean country did. My child didn’t notice the color until the teacher pointed it out. My child’s friends were mixed races and mixed nationalities
How JGHS could have got satisfactory is beyond belief. The inspector(s) clearly are not seeing what I see every day I walk into that school.
How about ending the segregation in the education system?
If you want your kids to go to private school pay up or shut up.
Ummm,
I am a single Caymanian Mom. I work two jobs, more than 70 hours a week. I cannot afford to send my kids to private school. Are you going to pay those crazy fees for me.? Hmmm let me think…food and shelter or bloated private school fees. Entitled much. Much be nice to have it handed to you.
Um… Maybe YOU shouldn’t have had children if you can’t afford them? Why is it someone else’s fault?
And for the record, I don’t have kids because I wouldn’t be able to afford to provide them with the very best.
Umm… Maybe she was married but got divorced or widowed? Did that thought ever cross your mind?
And for those who are wondering and “baby sitting” kids in Cayman cost from private schools.
Tripple C fees – https://triplecschool.org/about-us/school-fees/
Grace Christian Academy – http://www.gracechristianacademycayman.org/admissions/tuition/
Cayman International School – https://www.caymaninternationalschool.org/admissions/tuition-and-fees
St. Igantius Catholic School – http://www.st-ignatius.com/images/fees/Fees2018.pdf
Fees are almost as bad as a paying a mortgage.
Well well…. Could this be because they are more worried about hair and not having on the right school pants vs children not doing homework?
And you wonder why Caymanians are not getting hired?
Maybe Mac was wrong when he said you didn’t have to be educated to lead a country… He dropped out at 13 I think it was… I know a lot of dumbass 13 years olds.
With all the money spent on education, this is truly alarming. As a Caymanian educator I feel “stink” saying this but I see inept teaching all around. It seems to be a lack of “buy in” from our teachers from other Caribbean countries who see the Cayman Islands as much better off than their countries and thus, have a lackadaisical attitude towards teaching our students. When you hire staff from first world countries you will receive higher quality both educationally and commitment-wise. Just saying…..
I think this is so true, I have a problem now with my daughter at JGHS, who is doing a subject and not understanding when she ask the teacher to explain, she reply to say you guys are getting 1 & 2 in math’s and don’t know this, that’s not the point I ask a question not for you to be smart and yes she is from Caribbean country. All this do is to make the kids feel like they are not trying..
Caymanians really need to be encouraged to become teachers like it was in the 60s to 80s. Back then the standard of education was way better. Some, not all, of the recruited teachers are either just on a holiday and the others couldn’t give a hoot, and if you really get to know them and listen to them all they do is put our people and homeland down, while they save up the Cayman dollar. I lived near to a family for two years, when they first arrived they could not stop praising the schools and Cayman, then as soon as the education department refused to let their child skip a class ( because according to them she was so brilliant) all the praise turned into bad-mouthing. If all of you think the majority of them give a crap whether or not our students progress you are in la la land. Stop trying to get into banking because those jobs are drying and try teaching. Some Parents also need to step up and properly raise their children and stop turning loose a bunch of unruly illmannered disrupters on the education system.
10:47
Thanks for your honest input and hopefully our elected officials and Education Dep will start to heed your advice as it’s been ignored for far too long. Alden figured spending $100million on CH High School would spell success yet failed to realize good teachers should be paid well and addressing social problems amongst students. Now we’re in a race against time to try to save our future by correcting the errors of the past, pay peanuts expect a donkey show.
I am sure there are lazy individuals from many othe places too. It is difficult when the government keeps chopping and changing what curriculum they want delivered.
Make sure your performance was fabulous before your broad criticism of your colleagues
Caymans are getting hired as teachers. They see teaching their own as to hard work and would rather slip back to being a student where they can have more fun ridiculing teachers.
“too” , not “to”
Do the private schools subject to this inspection? Are they any better? Just asking.
Probably…they have more frequent standardized education testing, mandatory professional development, and regular review intervals, as part of their memberships in International Baccalaureate or the English National Curriculum. When nearly 100% of graduating high school students go on to their college/university of first choice, or A-levels, they much be doing something right.
“Maybe Mac was wrong when he said you didn’t have to be educated to lead a country…” Just goes to show any idiot can be a “good” politician in Cayman, I won’t even mention how that makes us as a country look that we are so backwards, so stupid that an uneducated person can run us. This is why we need career politicians like the rest of the world and not some part-time politco cashing a government paycheck.