The Gleaner editorial ‘Ascot revisited’, deserves commendation for looking beyond the understandable public outrage surrounding Ascot Primary School’s rather unfortunate graduation arrangements. No child should ever be publicly diminished because of examination performance. This incident has inadvertently illuminated a far more consequential national question: what is the purpose of primary education?

The events at Ascot Primary are merely one of the symptoms of the educational disease.

For decades, debate has been dominated by placement, prestige and pageantry while insufficient attention has been paid to educational equity and measurable learning. The central issue is not who wears a mortarboard, nor even who attains PEP proficiency. It is whether every child leaves Grade Six genuinely able to read, comprehend, write, reason mathematically and think critically at internationally expected standards.