Paula Daley-Morris

As a developing nation, Jamaica continues to experience economic challenges that have far-reaching implications for all sectors of the society. Education For All (EFA) is a concept that Jamaica has tried to embrace for more than two decades. One of the nation's goals for the 21st century is to raise the quality of education for all its citizens, thus equipping them to be productive contributors to societal growth. Recently, Jamaica turned its attention to information technology (IT), with particular attention to the education sector, because it saw its introduction as a proverbial “Black Starliner;” a means by which the country’s economic prospects could be changed. In the early 1990s, the Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation (JCSEF) launched an initiative to facilitate the establishment of computer laboratories in secondary schools. These laboratories were to be used to train students to use computers in the workplace, and to prepare them to sit external examinations that were internationally accredited. As a result of this initiative, 90% of the island’s secondary schools were equipped with computer laboratories which facilitated students doing the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) IT examination. The impact of this project enabled the focus on computerisation to be expanded to include primary schools, enabling them to be equipped with computers and to have their teachers trained to use them to aid learning.

This monograph describes the initiatives that enabled the introduction of computers in Jamaican primary and secondary schools. It also describes the student performance on the CXC IT examination over a period of six years. The results show that each year more candidates were entered for the Technical Proficiency level than for the General Proficiency level of the examination. It further shows that student performance at the General Proficiency level steadily improved over the six years, while it fluctuated at the Technical Proficiency level. It highlights the fact that the performance of Jamaican candidates improved significantly in the year CXC instituted the six-point grading system. However, most of the passes were below the Grade I level. The data suggest that there may be deficiencies in the education system that caused IT teachers to show a preference for teaching the Technical Proficiency syllabus. The implications for this occurrence as it relates to tertiary level training in computer science are discussed.