Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr Grace McLean, says several options are being explored to help students who might have regressed because of the disruption to the teaching learning process since the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close early in March, come the September term.

“We know some regression would have taken place and so for the first three weeks in September we will be administering a special assessment in selected subject areas across the system to identify the gaps and to determine how these gaps will be filled going forward,” Dr Mclean told a digital forum put on by the Caribbean Centre for Educational Planning recently.

“Based on how the curriculum is set up, whatever has been adjusted for the new school year the students will be able to catch up in subsequent years, we will, however, pay special attention to those students from Grade 6 who will be moving to seven and those moving from Grade 9 into 10,” she stated.

In the meantime, Dr McLean said the ministry is in the process of “putting in place a national sector committee to look at the medium- to long-term plans for education from a strategic perspective.

The plans we are making now really are to facilitate the opening in September,” she added, noting that the ministry had advised during the last term that the introduction of new concepts should be limited

And the permanent secretary said based on research done with assistance from international partners the education officials have identified an approach using the six-feet distancing to accommodate students.

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