…says Minister Baksh
THE Ministry of Education is prepared to review its implemented policy of automatic promotion of students after two years to determine its shortcomings and success.
This pronouncement was made by the Minister of Education Shaik Baksh at a press briefing at the Ministry of Education, where he represented the Ministry’s  policy initiative on the automatic promotion of children in the school system and sought to address the ‘no child left behind policy’. “We have no such stipulated policy in the Ministry of Education, this is an American policy initiative of the Bush

administration”, he stressed.
The Minister emphasised that through all of the Education Ministry’s interventions and programmes, the main focus has been to

ensure access to primary and secondary education to all.
He said, “All programmes have been devised to ensure that most, if not all, students attain certain academic standards in the

primary and secondary schools of this country, so that they will turn out to be useful citizens, so they can be functional in the

world of work and go on to higher studies.”
Implicit in this objective, Baksh stated, is that no child should be left behind in the education system, and even though no such

policy exists, this needs to be emphasised.
Alluding to his presentation to the National Assembly on Automatic Promotion, Baksh reiterated that the Ministry has reviewed its

policy on repetition; and after a survey was done at secondary schools between 2007 – 2009, it was discovered that repetition has

been dysfunctional and has led to a 80% drop- out rate of repeaters.
“Repeating a grade has not worked to the benefit of those repeaters and has failed; a classic example is at Wismar Secondary,

where there are children repeating for two and three years,” he revealed, adding, “there are 17-year-olds at Grade Seven, this is

dysfunctional.”
Continuing, the Education Minister highlighted that there is an increased amount of psychological strain placed on pupils forced

to remain.
“This reflects a failure on behalf of the school and not the children, to ensure that proper interventions and sound remediation

takes place,” he posited.
Referring to a UNESCO article ‘Does repeating Grades help pupils’, which shows conclusively repetition has a negative impact on

social adjustment and self-esteem, resulting in the fostering  of  negative attitudes towards school, leading to drop- outs, he

said, “Repeating early grades leads to further retention down the road and can also lead to drop-outs, the national survey also

indicates this.’
In addition, he cited a report by the Carnegie Council on adolescent development which estimated that a single grade repetition

increases the likelihood of drop out by 40-50%.
“The choice is to have a system of repetition for those who have not reached the standard, or alternatively there can be a system

whereby the students are promoted while certain strategic interventions are made,” Baksh put forward.
He also emphasised that the circular issued by the Chief Education Officer in May 2010, clearly states that while the child is

promoted, the school has the responsibility of developing interventions through strong, continuous remediation to ensure those

children catch up.
In this regard, the Ministry has developed very strong monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, allowing the regional educational

departments and teams from the Ministry of Education to visit the schools.
“Already they have visited the East Bank and Linden, where they did a report on all secondary schools to support the automatic

promotion and to ensure the schools take on the responsibility they are supposed to,” he said.

Implemented Programmes
According to the Minister, the Continuous Professionals Development Programme is currently under way to ensure that this happens.
In addition, his Ministry has devised a strategy to look at the Grades Two, Four and Six assessments system to ensure that schools

apply in a diagnostic way the results of the assessments, so that from an early stage they can ensure that students are taken care

of through remediation.
“Under the Basic Education Access and Management Support Programme, BEAMS, thousands of teachers have been trained in new literacy

methodology; we have instititutionalised the literacy hour and the accelerated reading programme; and if schools adhere to the

guidelines with all of the resource materials in abundance in the schools, the largest percentage of students should be moving

through the system,” Baksh added.
He revealed that from next year, there will be the Grade Four literacy certificate, where the entire country will know the

percentage of students who have passed the assessments and the standards they have achieved.
In addition, this will expose those schools which have not been performing, thereby placing pressure on the schools, teachers and

most importantly, the management and the parents to ensure that they work harder. In addition, there will be a remediation year

for those who have not made it.
He said, “This model is in existence in Jamaica and it has been working quite well; we will institutionalise this in our country

next year so that Grades Four and Five are the remedial years; so by the time they reach Grade Six they would be at an acceptable

standard.”
“Leaving the children to repeat does not guarantee that they will move forward; as a matter of fact, it has had the reverse

effect.”
Further, he said the Ministry is aware of the high drop-out rate of students between Grades Seven and Nine and has therefore

introduced the Secondary School Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP), which addresses the individual needs of students.

Wismar /Christianberg
Alluding to the findings of Summary Report of Secondary Schools monitoring in Education, District 10, from October 11- 15, he said

that the head of that school, Cleveland Thomas, was taken to the teaching Service Commission as he breached the policy of

automatic promotion stated in the circular issued by the Chief Education Officer.
“There have been so many breaches and it is the intention of the Ministry to call upon the head teachers to explain those

breaches,” Baksh explained.
Most notable, he stated, was the lack of supervision for classes and lack of management, as there was no academic plan for the

school year 2009 – 2010, no appraisal reports of teachers, and staff development sessions were absent.
The amount and age of the repeaters in this school, he explained, also needs to be investigated, as this is of major concern to

the Ministry.
“The school has failed the students and the parents need to go to the PTA to ensure that this school works in a more efficient

manner.
The Minister recognised that new policies will always have its discontents; but at the same time, heads must comply with the

instituted policy which the Ministry is prepared to review to determine it has been working.
“This policy can work and it can work miracles, and we will work with the schools to ensure this,” Minister Baksh assured.
He said the expected outcome is to have low achievers be brought up to acceptable secondary school standards, the success of which

depends upon parents and teachers.