-in Education Month message
“We must work to ensure that our students attend school regularly, and are punctual. If we are to improve the quality of education our children receive, we must first ensure that they are present in the classroom to benefit from the numerous interventions planned and are being implemented in the education sector.”

This is according to Minister of Education Shaik Baksh in a message to mark Education Month which is being observed under the theme ‘School attendance and Punctuality: Keys to Education Success’.

Minister Baksh said this can only be achieved through the ‘participation and assistance of the entire nation’. He noted that the Ministry will continue to encourage community participation in education and has organised a number of ongoing outreach sessions in each Region.

The Ministry has also committed itself to ensuring that teachers internalise the Education Month theme and dedicate themselves to attaining a higher percentage of overall attendance and punctuality for the new school year that commenced yesterday.

Minister Baksh pointed out that the ‘Education managers will place greater emphasis on these key variables and will support and encourage our teachers to meet the expected benchmarks’. 

“Where teachers consistently fail to attain these basic expectations, mechanisms have been put in place to initiate necessary sanctions; our nation’s future is at stake here,” Minister Baksh said. 

Most of the capital works that had been embarked on have been completed and these will improve the infrastructure and overall physical facilities in hundreds of schools around the country.

He further noted that the Administration will continue to work to ensure that the school environment is conducive to learning and it will seek the support of teachers and parents in maintaining the structures.

Minister Baksh said this new school year begins inspired by improvements in the recent CSEC results, particularly in the areas of Mathematics and English, following ‘a number of interventions and strategies instituted throughout the education system’.

He thanked parents, teachers and all other educators who made such a success possible.

The level of literacy and numeracy must be significantly improved at the primary level; and in this regard the Ministry has initiated the Literacy and Numeracy Unit of the Ministry of Education which is ‘charged with accelerating efforts in these key areas’, he said.

He noted that the introduction of the literacy certification assessment in Grade Four is on stream, along with other literacy interventions, all with the intention of ensuring the short – term literacy standards within the nation are improved. (GINA)