A good opportunity to improve the standards of students entering secondary schools

Dear Editor,
This final term of the school year provides a perfect opportunity for many to improve the level of preparation of students entering secondary schools in September. Unfortunately, I already see many Grade Six students playing excessively. In one school visited, I got the distinct impression that everyone felt that this term had little remaining value for those particular students since they had already written the National Grade Six Assessment.  This is sad considering the low levels of preparation common to the vast majority of our students entering our secondary institutions.
The stark reality is that our society has developed an exam-driven culture—an issue I will address at another time—which hinders rather than helps.  As such, our teachers in the affected grades continue to teach to the exams and our students are emerging from our institutions without attaining the standards established for those levels. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the primary cycle.  Given the elitist nature of our education system, the bulk of the emphasis is placed on the small number of students who will take up places in our better performing ten of eleven institutions.  The other students are left to sink or swim, having emerged from primary school ill-prepared for the demands of secondary education.  This further compounds itself as these same students are automatically promoted through the system, regardless of performance.  I strongly feel that there are some strategies which can begin to address these problems. 
Firstly, our Grade Six teachers have an ideal opportunity during this term to begin addressing the deficiencies their students have, given the fact that they do not have an exam hanging over their heads.  This would provide an ideal opportunity for them to focus on improving the performance standards of the majority of students in their schools who will not end up in the elite secondary institutions.  In real terms it might mean that in schools where streaming is done, which includes the majority of our primary schools, allow that respected, top-class teacher to take the weaker students for this term, exposing them to some of the teaching usually reserved for the best and the brightest in the schools.  This would certainly begin to address some of their needs for a change. The objective here is to raise their overall performance standards in preparation for secondary education.  Secondly, since the majority of the students in the category being addressed will be headed to the secondary schools in their area, it provides a prime opportunity for the secondary schools and the primary schools to begin collaborating. This collaboration should be aimed at developing a programme of instruction which would start now in their final term in primary school and continue in the secondary school during the vacation period, to ensure that they are better prepared for the challenges of secondary school come September.  Of course this will require some additional time and planning, however, given the price we pay for doing nothing, it will certainly be resources well spent. It will not solve all of our problems, but it is certainly better than giving these students and parents a false sense of security, as though the mission has been accomplished and they can relax until exam results come out and they put on their new uniforms and head to school. Yours faithfully,
Olato Sam