Question

To what extent do you think streaming/banding of students in the Caribbean affects their performances and achievements? Substantiate your response with a Sociological Perspective.

Answer 1

Different opinions exist about handling all the students in a single class with the same level of teaching materials and methods. So, many schools, including schools in Caribbean have adopted a method called 'Streaming' where children will be assessed initially and put into different groups where the materials and methods of teaching will be different to different levels. This will ensure that every one is catered to their needs. These students will be together throughout the academic year for all the subjects. So the expected outcome from the lower groups will always remain lower and the teachers will also keep their expectations and teaching level lower which will prevent the students in the lower group from getting a place in good university.

Few schools have introduced the 'Setting' method where children will be grouped according to their ability, subject wise and each subject will have a different group of students as each student will be good at few subjects and not good at other subjects. This is much better than keeping a student low or high in all the subjects because he will atleast be able to excel in the subject in which he is good at.

In a sociological point of view, it's not fair that a student is kept low in expectations and standards throughout the year. He will lose the chance of learning from his peers. If he is not expected to perform well, then the teachers are not doing their part well, the school is denying the rights of the students. Marxists even argue that the chances are more that the economically poor children will be put in the low performing groups most of the time.

The best solution to overcome this is by introducing 'Mixed Ability' classrooms where all the students will be together for all the subjects. This will help the low performing students to get help from their high performing peers during and after the lessons. It will motivate the low performing students to move to the next level. It will also ensure that social justice is served by caringing all the students equally.

Thank you for the question.

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