Education officials urged to curb laxity in school system

Dec 29, 2010 News

Minister of Education, Shaik Baksh, has urged regional education officials to be pro-active in their approach to work, stating that frequent visits and “hands-on” supervision of schools will significantly reduce the laxity in the school system.
Minister Baksh explained that this is the only effective way in which a better understanding of the prevalent problems affecting schools will be developed and said that valuable guidance and support will be added to headteachers by these officials.
He emphasized that when students at any school have poor and unacceptable performances, this is a signal for action and regional education officials need to play their part in such cases.
According to a press release from the Education Ministry, the Minister stressed “the need for effective supervision of the education system and strong leadership on the part of headteachers to ensure programmes work and the country gets value for money”.
Baksh went on to say that while many headteachers have been making “concerted efforts to improve the performance of their schools, others have not been up to the task in terms of proper supervision and implementation of programmes, despite numerous workshops and seminars on these matters”.
The attitude of the latter, the minister stated, has been the primary cause of failure of their schools to perform at an acceptable standard and the Education Ministry has recognized the major challenges in the school system and implemented measures to overcome them.
Education Officials were also urged to bridge the communication gap between the central ministry and their regions since all education officials and teachers are involved in the process of transforming the education system and should “make a genuine effort to bring about positive changes”.
The press release further stated that the Minister pointed out that during the past three years; there have been major improvements in the education sectors at all levels to both beef-up students’ performance and build teachers’ capacity.
At the primary level, the Ministry has instituted a number of measures including the Grade Four Literacy Certificate, and has completed diagnostic reviews of the Grades Two and Four Assessments to ensure more effective delivery and improvements in students’ performance.
The Grade Six Assessment is also being evaluated to correct any existing weaknesses.
A six-year programme was introduced at secondary schools with the aim of transforming low achievers from the primary level to secondary school standards. The Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP) was also initiated to stem school drop-outs by offering an alternative pathway for students who are not desirous of entering the academic-oriented streams.
In addition, the five lowest performing primary and secondary schools in every region are being given special attention by the Ministry with the aim of reversing their poor performances and continuous remediation in Mathematics and English at both primary and secondary schools have been institutionalized.
Also stated in the press release, numerous workshops were conducted by the Education Ministry to maintain a disciplined school environment and enhance students’ learning outcomes in the key subject areas, notably Mathematics and English, to name a few of the developments.
This year, the national average of students who obtained passes in Grades One to Three at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations was 69 per cent.
This achievement was above the benchmark of 65 per cent set out in the Education Strategic Plan. Students also recorded a 59 per cent pass rate counting Grades One to Three in English, which was also above the target in the plan.

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Education officials urged to curb laxity in school system

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