ABDF

Well I have some great news to share; it seems that our efforts to increase the testing scores for the exam have been very successful.

The exam was given in mid-August and the results came out last week. Now keep in mind that 100 points is considered a pass, and that our school in Navatkadu hadn’t seen a pass in some 15 years (analysis shows that the average score for the past five years was around 43 points), with the highest score being 92. This year, not only did we get a score over 100 points, but we got SEVEN students scoring above 100, with 122 points being the highest. This represents the highest number of over 100 students in recent memory, at least according to the schools’ principal.

So congratulations to this years’ 5th Grade class on a job well done!

And now for the sobering news. A full 33% of students scored UNDER 20 points, with several scoring only one point, and a couple others only earning two. How does a kid score 1 point on a multiple choice test? Even if you guess on each answer, the odds are that, with four possible answers, you have a 25% chance of being correct. How could this happen, considering that all 5th Grade students were given the same intensive tutoring? This is particularly surprising because last year, in 2009, only 8% scored under 20 points. That’s what? Something like a 400% increase? What is happening?

I had a meeting with the school principal and the Asst. Education Director for Mamunai West Division. They had two explanations:

First, they literally forced every student to take the test, as the schools’ budget is based in part on how many students take the test. In the past they had lost out on funding because only some students had taken it. So this included those kids who didn’t want to take the test, as well as those, a majority of the low score-ers, who I describe next.

Second, what we seem to be seeing is the beginning of a bubble that will pass through all grade levels for the foreseeable future. These are the students on whom the war inflicted the heaviest toll, education-wise. The schools in the Division suffered from lack of funding from the government, even during the ceasefire when the government was supposed to be funding schools in LTTE areas. But perhaps more significantly was the dual combo of militia “volunteer” recruitment and government military action (Navatkadu was literally on the front line) which cumulated in the almost complete displacements of 2006 and 2007. The result was a widespread scattering of families into displacement camps and other places. This is illustrated by low student numbers, both in terms of class size and the number of test-takers, before (and including) 2008. I know that most families weren’t allowed to return to their homes until last year, 2009.

You also have to factor in the attitude of the parents. The families of the Division are all poverty-stricken rice farmers and most don’t see any value in education and so do nothing to encourage their kids. On the coastal strip, people see the results of education: so-and-so’s kid got an education and is now a lawyer, so maybe my kid can also advance the family. There are no real examples of this in Mamunai West right now for people to emulate, although that is slowly changing.

The result is that there is a bubble of students, representing several years, where most students had little or no early education. Thus, for example, some of these kids still don’t know the alphabet and can’t write their own names. Schools across the former LTTE-held areas are struggling with this educational “mini generation gap.” But the combination of missing early education due to displacement, lack of resources and expertise in dealing with way-behind students, and the disinterest of the parents, means that there is little hope for this particular group of kids. This is not to say that all students in the area suffer from this combination of issues, but my school contacts estimate that half of their students are in this situation.

And this is the sad truth: fighting and ending a war is easy compared to managing the peace. It will probably be a generation before those communities that suffered most under the war and the consequent disintegration of their communities and larger society will be able to catch up. Still, we must continue to do our best and try to improve things, a bit at a time. Otherwise, what do we do? Throw away a whole generation?

The data and analysis can be found here.