The Editor, Sir:

I think it's time for the policy makers to stop supporting a largely fruitless programme for students.

Every year the government continues to waste millions of dollars paying for children to sit mathematics and English language at the CXC level.

A report in The Daily Gleaner on September 15 informed the nation that Jamaican students performance placed them behind all other students in mathematics and English language at the CXC level for 2006 in the Caribbean.

I think it would be more prudent for the government to use the money being used to pay for those CXC subjects on a well structured remedial programme in the area of mathematics and language arts at the primary level.

It is a well established fact that failure of students to grasp basic principles in mathematics and language arts at the primary level has been a major reason for the low performance in these areas at the high school level over the years.

I would like to see Mr. Hopeton Henry, and his team at the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) pressure the Government to place more remedial language arts teacher's in primary schools and establish well developed remedial mathematics programmes in those schools.

I am, etc.,

Hugh A. Blair

Trelawny