Transforming Education was the theme for International Youth Day 2019. Though the pleasantries and buzz about the need to transform education systems around the world, there are many who advocate for education equality even now!
Grassroots to me is where greatness is born! Grassroots initiatives help communities who are basically family – whether by blood or otherwise grow and feel even more united. My story through education and my grassroots advocacy of education equality came when I realised the problem that needed addressing.
I grew up in Anse-la-Raye, a village on the west coast of Saint Lucia, West Indies. All my foundation education was done in Anse-la-Raye until I succeeded and thereafter attended the St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School, the top performing school on the island. My mother is a teacher and has been in the profession long before I was born. This meant that I grew up in a household where charts, markers, exam papers and any school related paraphernalia was everywhere.
It was no secret that some students struggled to grasp concepts in the classrooms, and that teachers had paid after school classes for students to help in areas where they struggled so that they would perform well at standardised tests. This was where, I believe my subconscious began to hold onto a realisation that would be triggered in 2014.
Going through my first two years at primary school was not as pressured as my last two years were, while we got ready for the Common Entrance exam. From the start of Grade 5, we had after school lessons and lessons on Saturdays. Though a large percentage of my class attended these extra classes, we would constantly hear teachers at assembly reminding students of their missing payments for our after-school lessons. As I grew older, I realised that the costly nature of private lessons – by private I mean, not provided at school or happened after school – meant that there were in fact many students across the island and in my community itself who could not receive the help they so much needed.
This inequality in the access to needed assistance was wholly unfair, especially because at the end of our five years at secondary school, we all had to sit the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) examinations administered by the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).
Whenever I see this comic of a bird, monkey, penguin, elephant, fish, seal and dog being asked to climb a tree, I cannot help but chuckle. This is what inequality in this area of education looks like to me in my country. We may have access to schools, but many students lack majority of the resources needed to ensure the best outcome of their academic careers, from expensive text books and internet connection, to needed extra lessons. It is quite unfair that students who need additional support cannot receive it because of such high after-school lessons fees. How are they expected to climb the same tree as their peers when they are at such a disadvantage? A question I battled with any time I spoke about students in my community who had potential but because of missing resources, didn’t perform their best.
In 2014, I had my trigger moment. I had just finished my first year at college and it dawned on me that I should revamp an after-school programme in my community which I briefly attended during my first year of secondary school six years prior. I felt like it was my duty and mission (at the time) to bring back this initiative as it was something I wish I had during my time at secondary school. And just like that, after numerous meetings, Gabriella Bellegarde a US Peace Corps volunteer and I revamped the Youth On Fire Movement After School Assistance Programme (ASAP). The ASAP did just what we set out to do. It provided a safe space for students from Anse-la-Raye to receive help with assignments and projects, use facilities they otherwise would not have access to and receive one-on-one or small group support with areas they struggled with.
The ASAP has been a massive success and has seen quite a few secondary school students progress academically and otherwise, whether it was just in their classes or their success at the CSEC exams which would see them then attending college. The ASAP, though trying to solve the problem at a grassroots level is not enough! Anse-la-Raye is not the only community on the island where struggling students whose parents can’t afford after school lessons slip through the cracks, write and unfortunately fail the exams which they could have succeeded at if they had some extra help.
I believe that in 2019, parents’ ability to pay for private lessons for their child should not be a barrier to their child’s success. Some students thrive in a small group setting and not classes of thirty-five to forty of their peers. Why should a child miss out because of circumstances beyond their control? Many see education inequality considering access to education as not being able to attend school regularly. It is similarly a big problem that students who can attend school regularly do not have access to all what they need to succeed. I believe that it will take a lot of work, as grassroots leaders like myself and others can only do so much.