EDITORIAL: Recognise best performing schools

Results for the A’ Level national exams were released yesterday but with not much difference compared to last year. Both years registered a pass rate of 89% but this year girls overturned the tables clinching 51.9% of the tally. But what is very telling in the statistics – and which authorities should address urgently – is that females were conspicuously absent among the top performers in science subjects. This has been a trending issue for the last few years where fewer girls take up science subjects and opt for the “less demanding” fields. But whatever fields they chose, all candidates are to be commended for keeping, if not slightly surpassing last year’s performance. In keeping with the decision to not rank schools according to performance, those who produced best students fell short-changed and need to be recognized. Ranking also red flags “poor” performing schools so that education officials concentrate on them to find out what is holding them back. Both success and failure should not be swept under the carpet but should be brought out to the fore and given the attention they deserve. While the Ministry of Education had explained that it was all in the spirit of creating a level playing field, ranking schools encourages healthy competition. But, even then, best performing schools have come up with a way of going around the ban; they have taken to advertising in the media their performance, so in the end, not ranking schools is a lost cause from the beginning.

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EDITORIAL: Recognise best performing schools