Hundreds turn out to Education Ministry Maths Camp

Jan 29, 2018 News

Children turned out in their numbers on Saturday when the Ministry of Education commenced the first in a series of ‘Maths Camp’. The initiative is one aimed at improving the performance of children at the 2018 National Grade Six Assessment [NGSA].
Camps were held at three schools – West Ruimveldt Primary, F. E. Pollard Primary and North Georgetown Primary. Present were scores of parents helping teachers for a collective impact. The initiative, which will run until March 24, was commended and well received by both parents and students.
As part of its continued effort to improve the Mathematics performance of pupils at the NGSA, the Ministry of Education introduced the ‘Maths Camp’ initiative.
Last week this publication was informed that a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] to this effect was sent out to primary schools across the country by Chief Education Officer, Mr. Marcel Hutson.
Speaking of the initiative recently, Senior Public Relations Officer within the Ministry, Mr. Brushell Blackman, said that by way of the memo, schools have been instructed to conduct mathematics camps within the respective regions. As stated in the memo, Blackman said that “all grade six pupils must be informed and given the opportunity to attend the Maths camps.”
The sessions, he related, are being offered at no cost and therefore cannot be misconstrued for extra lessons.
“Parents will not have to pay for their children to be a part of the camps and, according to the CEO too, parents can even accompany their children if they so desire,” Blackman added.
The 2018 sitting of the NGSA will be conducted on March 28 and 29.
In the quest to ensure that pupils are on the right track, the Ministry recently conducted ‘Mock’ NGSA examinations. This tactic is one that was geared at highlighting the weaknesses of pupils with a view of having them addressed.
As a result of the mock exams, a number of key mathematical challenges have been identified for improvement among pupils within the Georgetown Education District. Among the key areas observed in the Georgetown District, according to District Education Officer [Primary], Ms. Deborah Hutson, are number theory, number properties, operations, ratios, percentages, measures, in addition to a few others.
Moreover, she noted that keen attention will be given to these areas within the Georgetown District ahead of the sitting of NGSA this year.

Scenes from Saturday’s ‘Maths Camp’

For nine Saturdays, starting from yesterday, Grade Six pupils are slated to be exposed to sessions geared at improving their ability to better grasp the target areas. Sessions are slated to span 09:00 to 12:00 hours.
“For the three hours for that particular day [Saturdays] it will be strictly maths in a fun way, not the ‘chalk and the talk’ we are going to have games, we are going to have practical examples of stuff being done and where possible we are going to have videos so that the children can actually have a clearer understanding of concepts that may have been bothering them.
They are going to be exposed to the various ways of answering problems,” Hutson explained.
She continued, “What I like about this [initiative] is the fact that it may not be a pupil’s class teacher delivering these sessions, so the child will get an opportunity to interact with other teachers and the other teachers may very well put over a concept in a different way than a pupil’s regular class teacher and that pupil just may get a better understanding of something they didn’t understand before.”
However, Hutson related that some class teachers will be on board since they have volunteered to lend their support to the intervening initiative which will be spearheaded by trained Maths Coordinators and Monitors. The Maths Coordinators and Monitors, according to Hutson, have developed strategies, skills, games and various ideas that will be shared with teachers in hopes that they can implement these in their classrooms.
But the ‘Maths Camps’ Hutson said, are not expected to take away from other remedial sessions being undertaken by teachers in their respective schools.
“Some teachers have regular lessons on Saturdays and we are not in any way trying to kill that…but from a Georgetown District level we see that there is a need for us to do more this year and we have taken on this [initiative] and we are adding support to the teachers,” explained Hutson.
She added, “What we want to do is send down some rain…they say what rain can’t full, due can’t full but we haven’t reached the due stage; we are still raining.”
The tactical move is a continuation of efforts that were introduced last year to improve the mathematics performance at the NGSA level.
“This is one of the continuing activities that we hope to have until we are satisfied with the performance of our pupils,” said Hutson. As part of the improvement strategy, she revealed that a number of other activities are ongoing in the Georgetown District.
Among these, Hutson said, are ‘Maths Clinics’ which are conducted during the course of the week. This measure sees Maths Coordinators and Monitors visiting various schools to conduct ‘clinics’ for classes grade one through six.
“If some pupils have difficulties in a particular area, teachers can forward them to the coordinators or monitors and they will sit and go through, thoroughly in small groups, the areas of difficulties with the pupils,” Hutson related.
Last year a Mathematics intervention saw the Ministry recording a 46 percent pass rate in the area of Mathematics. This came on the heels of a daunting pass rate of 14 percent.
Over the years the Ministry has been faced with a problem of considerable poor performance in the subject area. The intervention entailed a number of aspects such as training for teachers in content and methodology and over 1000 teachers were trained in this regard.
The strategic movement also entailed fortnightly cluster meetings in all regions which were conducted with both public and private schools. There were also recruitment of Mathematics coordinators and monitors, training of officers and School Administrators to supervise the teaching of Mathematics, and the administering of a diagnostic assessment of pupils in the hinterland regions, prior to training of teachers.
Added to this, the intervening measures included enhancement of public relations, parental involvement in the education of children and acquisition of support materials for students.
This moreover allowed for Mathematics to be the most improved subject area characterised by an increase of over 30 percent in the number of candidates gaining 50 percent and more last year.