?It?s dramatic. I see children leave my class without even being able to write their name or do simple arithmetic. Unfortunately I can?t do anything about it. When they arrive in Standard VI, it?s already too late and I have neither the time nor the willpower to restart from scratch?, explains a teacher posted in a primary school of a zone d?éducation prioritaire (ZEP). The ministry is coming up with a major project in all primary schools to make sure that as early as Standard III, teachers will be able to identify slow learners. This would be the first step towards a proper remediation programme.

Every year, thousands of children leave our primary schools without being able to write or read properly. About 30% fail the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) examination and a significant number of those who just pass aren?t adequately equipped to continue their schooling with success. The failures of our system are common knowledge. But what is really being done to prevent this?

Not much! Well, there?s something called the National Literacy & Numeracy Strategy (NLNS) that teachers of all primary classes are supposed to implement with their pupils everyday, but the project hasn?t had big success until now. Failure rates are still as high as before. ?Instead of doing this, teachers prefer to use that time to do some revision?, says a head teacher.

The main hurdle to the implementation of this program is that it hasn?t been well defined from the beginning. Since it started in primary schools in June 2003, ?it has been felt from different quarters that neither the outcomes nor the expectations have been met. Indeed, a number of shortcomings have been identified?, an ad-hoc committee pointed out in its report in late 2005. To date, nothing has been done to improve this.

But, there?s a hope. The ministry of Education will introduce in a few weeks a diagnostic assessment in Standard III. With this instrument, the teacher will be able to better identify the strengths and weaknesses of each and every child. From there on, remedial education will be done to help those in need. As from the beginning of the next school year, the ministry will introduce a new type of remedial education. ?We?re still working on it. Different possibilities are examined but we aim to conceive the best possible model for our children?, says a technician of the ministry.

The program is being designed to match the children identified by their teacher as lagging behind and put them back on the right track. The ministry feels that children shouldn?t be allowed to leave primary schools where about half the students aren?t proficient enough to succeed in further schooling nor master sufficiently literacy and numeracy skills.

Many questions arise. What kind of remedial education is the government going to introduce next year? Is it going to implement it in every school? Will the teachers be sufficiently prepared to do remedial work?

For years, remedial education for children considered academically under-prepared has had both supporters and critics. And it can take several forms: from testing to determine where the gaps are, to modifying curriculum or providing tutoring and other support services as well as evaluating success upon completion of remedial work.

Is remediation the same as private tuition? Not at all, say educationists. ?Private tuition is not remedial education. Private tuition does not cater for individual learners?, says Jimmy Harmon from the Centre de Formation pour Educateurs, the training agency of the Bureau of Catholic Education.

To set up remedial education is not an easy thing. Firstly, because the ministry has to start from nothing. ?The concept of remedial education itself would imply specialist teachers. There are also other aspects like the timetabling, the school set-up and the support of the school community?, points out Jimmy Harmon.

If he thinks it a good thing to start with the introduction of a diagnosis tool in Standard III, much more has to be done. ?For sure, remedial education is a must in any educational system to address various types of learning disabilities (?) but I think these measures run the risk of being mere palliatives and will not be really fruitful as long as the ministry does not address the two main issues: the CPE examination system and the language issue. How can we bring remedial education when the whole system is trapped into an exam-oriented CPE, which kills creativity with its A+?, asserts Jimmy Harmon. In conclusion, he adds: ?Quality education is bold and goes deeper into issues. Up to now this is not being done.?

The greatest danger behind the introduction of remedial education is comprehension. Everybody has to understand clearly what the objectives of the authorities are and what they want to be done to achieve those.

One of the reasons of the failure of the NLNS was that at grassroots-level, not everybody understood what had to be done. ?Confusion, it appears, has arisen from an inadequate definition, if not a non-definition of the project. Far too many teachers have viewed that the NLNS as meant to be a form of remediation for weaker learners. This has resulted in high flyers getting quickly bored, and teachers, though keen on raising the achievement levels, not being able to close the gap between the different categories of learners?, can one read in the ad-hoc committee?s report.

The committee also felt that ?no matter how motivated teachers are in the implementation of the strategy, they are too often left on their own, without much support from the very first inspectors of the schools, the head teachers and deputy head teachers?. So many errors that the ministry should make it a point not to repeat.