CONTRARY to claims from some quarters of no progress in the education sector, Education Minister, Shaik Baksh, has said that the range of interventions being taken to address challenges in the sector tell a different story. Baksh, addressing a recent forum, said the Ministry of Education has been on track and ahead of some key benchmarks of the 2008-2013 Education Strategic Plan.
Notable in the area of English, he said that the pass rate in Grades One to Three has jumped from 50 per cent in 2009 to 59 per cent in 2010, way above the 50 per cent targeted in the Education Strategic Plan.
The performance in Mathematics too has been improving and has moved from 30 per cent in Grades One to Three in 2009 to 35 per cent in 2010, a few steps closer to the 40 per cent benchmark in the Strategic Plan.
A 66 per cent overall pass rate was also recorded at the 2010 CSEC examinations. This, according to Baksh, was creditable, as it is not too distant from the 70 per cent target of the Plan.
He noted that despite improvements in Mathematics and English, the ministry is not satisfied with the results in these two subjects and has implemented a number of measures to produce further improvements in 2011. CDs with complete lessons in Mathematics and English at the CSEC level have been submitted to all schools, resource personnel at NCERD have been assigned to work with schools that need assistance in these two areas, and headteachers have been asked to allocate more time to these two subjects at Grade 11.
The ministry has also institutionalised continuous remediation in Mathematics and English at both primary and secondary schools.
At the National Grade Six Assessment, he reported that the percentage of pupils who gained 50 per cent and more in Mathematics has improved from 21 per cent in 2009 to 34 per cent in 2010; Science from 23 per cent in 2009 to 33 per cent in 2010, and Social Studies from 32 per cent to 34 per cent during the corresponding period. A three percent decline from 27 per cent was recorded in English for the same period.
Baksh also said that his ministry has recognised the deficiencies at the primary level and will this year introduce the National Grade Four Certificate Programme. This initiative is expected to comprehensively address the shortcomings in literacy and numeracy in primary schools.
This change will place more pressure on teachers to perform as pupils will have to pass this examination to qualify to sit the NGSA. It will also force parents to be more involved in their children’s education.
The National Grade Four Literacy Certificate will also allow the ministry to gauge the literacy standards of pupils and no longer will poor performing headteachers be allowed to hide as the unsatisfactory performance of their schools will be published in the newspapers.
Baksh, at a previous forum, had said that the NGSA too is being evaluated with the aim of allowing pupils to sit only Mathematics and English. Science and Social Studies, he said, will not be abandoned, but will be integrated into the curriculum in keeping with the standards of sister CARICOM states.
Other initiatives to improve pupils’ performance at the primary level include the New Literacy Methodology which includes the Literacy Hour and Accelerated Literacy Instruction Periods, the Interactive Radio Instruction programme, and the Fast-track Literacy programme. All these programmes, as well as those at the secondary level, are being evaluated to ensure that they are properly tailored to achieve laudable objectives outlined in the Education Strategic Plan.
He said too that the school feeding and uniform programmes have positively impacted on students’ attendance and he called on parents to play a more active role in their children’s education.
Some of the other initiatives to improve education delivery, discipline in school and students’ performance, the minister said, include the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme, the Mentoring Programme, the HFLE Programme, the Truancy Programme, the Continuous Professional Development Programmers being delivered through NCERD, the Performance Enhancement Programme, the Information Communication Technology Programme targeting all schools, and the Associates Degree in Education Programme at CPCE.
The Ministry of Education has also established a PTA unit to ensure vibrant PTAs at all schools, a Literacy Unit to robustly tackle the problem of illiteracy, and a Health and HIV/AIDS unit to address related matters in the school system.