Worrying trend in Guam's public schools
Updated
Guam's education authorities have given a mark of C to the US territory's public school system.A report on the state of education in the US territory by the public school superintendent shows only one-third of public high school students in Guam go on to tertiary education. The President of the University of Guam, Robert Underwood, says that's a worrying figure.
presenter: Nasya Bahfen
Speaker: President of the University of Guam, Robert Underwood
UNDERWOOD: We are very very concerned about this statistic and we're trying to work on some initiatives to increase the numbers of high school graduates as well as the numbers of students who aspire to go on to post secondary education.
BAHFEN: The public school superintendent in Guam described the public school system using a number of colourful metaphors. She said Guam's public school system was like a family whose house needs repairs, but they second-guess the repairmen. She said it was like a car with a new coat of wax, but a broken engine. Would you agree?
UNDERWOOD: Yes I would and as a matter of fact the Superintendent and I have had a number of discussions on that very issue - trying to figure out ways that the University of Guam as well as the Guam Community College can be in partnership, because we all three institutions have to work together in order to provide a trained and capable workforce for the future of the island.
BAHFEN: There may be more young people starting as freshmen in Guam's public high schools but only sixty five per cent finish their senior years. What do you think are the barriers these young people face to completing high school?
UNDERWOOD: I really believe that there is a very low aspirational level among our students. And this is why I've articulated a new initiative called The Natural Choice, where the young people of Guam make post secondary ed. their natural choice, the natural next step in their life, and we're going to start recruiting them as early as the fifth grade so we can begin the dialogue of pointing out that higher education is not something to be afraid of or intimidated by.
BAHFEN: Do you believe there are any issues with the actual teaching, in Guam's public high schools?
UNDERWOOD: Specifically in terms of the kinds of teaching that goes on in the Guam public school systems, we're very concerned particularly with math. The math scores are dramatically down even of those students who graduate from high school in Guam. When they get to the University of Guam roughly seventy per cent of those students are in need of developmental English, or more likely in need of developmental math
BAHFEN: The public school superintendent Nerissa Bretania-Shafer says the low high school completion and tertiary education rates on Guam, are not just matters of money. But how much of an issue is funding?
UNDERWOOD: Resources are always a factor in education. In reality something is wrong in the way that we conduct our educational enterprise on Guam and we aim to fix it. So money certainly intelligently spent and innovatively spent will go a long way toward resolving the issues. But you know that's the definition of something gone wrong when you keep doing the same thing and hoping for a different result. And just pouring more money into the same effort will not resolve the problems.
