Teachers have expressed concerns about the literacy rate of students entering secondary school, saying some students can not read. These students either slow down the lessons as teachers try to accommodate their level of reading or they disrupt the entire class.
Paul Ramlogan, a teacher at Carapichaima West Secondary School, said of the 184 students who entered the school in September, 99 got marks under 30 per cent in their Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam.
He was speaking during the question and answer segment at a town hall meeting, part of the Ministry of Education’s National Conversation on Education – EdU Talk Forum, at Carapichaima West Secondary School on Tuesday.
“I have a class I’m teaching in Form 1 that, at this point, is at Standard Three level. So my concern is, what is being done in the primary school that a child is staying seven years in a school and coming out and can’t read?”
He said the students were frustrated and disrupted the learning process for the others.
Newsday spoke to another teacher at the event who said she had Form One students who could not even spell or write their names. She said the teachers in her secondary school were told there were no functional remedial programmes, so they had to come up with strategies themselves.
In response to Ramlogan, Chief Education Officer Dr Peter Smith said the ministry was aware there were “challenges” in the literacy and numeracy levels of children leaving primary schools and going into secondary schools, which were made worse by the pandemic.
He said the ministry started to address the issue with the vacation revision programme which was launched in 2022 for students who got 30 per cent or less in their SEA results. This year it targeted 9,000 students who received 50 per cent or less in their SEA results in 2023 and provided additional instruction.
This year, the programme was extended to the primary school level where students spent more time in key areas of literacy and numeracy. He said the ministry also engaged school social workers and guidance counsellors to provide support to parents and students to deal with social and emotional aspects as well as developmental issues.
"Already, we have seen the benefits, we have seen a reduction in indiscipline and infraction, we have seen an improvement, even in the SEA, we have seen an improvement in CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate). In fact, when you look at the data, I'm seeing for the first time probably in six or seven years, when we look at it 26 schools, we are seeing more students writing CSEC than we have seen in the past few years."
Earlier, speaking on the topic of remedial education, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said a remedial education programme was ongoing in 80 primary and 26 secondary schools.
“As a part of the equity in quality education and as a part of enabling students success, we have identified schools that need more support, and we are engaged in giving them that support at this time.
“They have been assigned school s
