‘Cosmetic education Policy Choice to Combat grade repetition
At the meeting a learner’s parent stood up , looked at the principal of the local government school and said ‘‘ You have betrayed us , I have worked like a brute my whole life , without school , I had no skills other than those of a donkey .But you told us that if I sent my son to school , his life would be different from mine .For five years , I have kept him the fields and work and sent him to your school. Only now I find out that is thirteen years old and doesn’t know anything’’ ( Pritchett, 2013:2).
The statement above, raises the questions about the effectiveness of education policies, pedagogical effectiveness and evaluation methods which erode the quality of education development of a nation.
Grade repetition policy is the practice of making learners who have not fully mastered the curriculum or achieved a certain standard to repeat the academic year (Ndaruhuste,2008:5).
However, the paradox is that for some countries, failure has positive or negative impact. For example, in Francophone countries high failure rates signify rigorous and high expectation of performances, whereas in Anglophone countries, high failure’’ rates indicate inefficacity, poor teaching and inadequate management of school system ( Eisemon,1997).
The term ‘’ education policy’’ is referred to a number of fundamental choices that guide an education system’’ ( Depover et al.20014). For Any-Gbayere (2006:18), the education policy is a set of decisions taken in anticipation with the view to meeting society’s expectations of education.
The development of any nation lies on the effectiveness of educational development theories’ choice and context. However, when an education policy is not based on robust and reliable data, it takes a route of cosmetic trajectory. For example, to combat grade repetition,countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon have focus on reducing subject credit with no attention to the various needs of learners with autism, dyslexia, slow learners and learning styles. It is obvious that , if there is no support for those learners , reducing subject credit or forcing them to repeat seems to be a waste of public funds , and subsequently contribute to increasing class size ( Ndaruhuste, 2008).
From this perspective, Tomlison (1996) emphasizes that , the school should inclusive pedagogie to ensure that all learners are able to realize their full potential in relation to equity and equality teaching approaches in the classroom. Equality promotes justice by giving the learners the same opportunities, whereas, Equity is about ensuring that all learners have the same opportunities , but sometimes their learning difficulties can create obstacle during the learning.
There are some learners who have temporary gap in the learning, these learners could be supported by implementing a short-term targeted intervention ( Wearmouth,2012). Short-term targeted intervention allows who have a temporary gap in their learning to quickly overcome them the support is provided by the teachers and school.
Another important input to highlight is the voice of the grade repeaters. Their voices remain unknown to the public, school inspectors and policy makers. On third of the repeaters argue that they have never been involved in discussions regarding their grade repletion with their teachers, headteachers, and school inspectors (Trocin, 2003). However, Lambert et al.(2000) argue that much can be learned about the concerns of the grade repeaters by talking to them and this conversation can be used as an evidence-based information for making decision on policy.
Unfortunately, the overcrowded classroom remains an issue in many African countries. For Webber (2010), maintaining a large class size touches upon two major concerns
-First reducing the class size is expensive for the state’s public purse
-Second, maintaining the large class size requires the recruitment of more low-qualified teachers, which has a negative impact on the learners’ academic performances.
References
Any-Gbayere(2006) politique éducative et développement en Afrique, Le Harmattan
Depover, C et al.(2014) Quelle cohérence pour l’éducation en Afrique, de Boeck
Eisemon, O (1997) Reducing repetition: Issues and Strategies, UNESCO
Lambert et al (2000) Understanding assessment, Purposes,Perception and Practice , Routledge
Ndaruhuste, S (2008) Grade repetition in Primary school in Subsaharan Africa : An evidence base for learning, CfBL
Pritchett,L (2013) The rebirth of education, Centre for Global Developement
Tomlison (1996) Inclusive Learning ; Principles and Recommendation
Trocin (2004) Redoublement en cours Préparatoire Séminaire Interne de IREDU