Some students still unengaged in face-to-face school, says ministry

By Halshane Burke 

 

Despite the resumption of face-to-face learning, a number of students who were unaccounted for during the COVID-19 pandemic remain unengaged. 

 

The Ministry of Education says its Yard to Yard initiative to locate students proved successful, but some students have still not returned to school.

 

Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams said a mobile app will soon be launched to properly track attendance. 

 

Although schools record student attendance manually, she noted that "by the time that data comes to us at the ministry, it's way late for us to take the appropriate action".   

 

The Family Connect app, Mrs Williams said, will be able to track the daily attendance of students, so the ministry can respond quickly when they are absent. 

 

The minister lamented the high rate of absenteeism that she said is plaguing the education system. 

 

"When you look at the attendance records, we are twice the world's average in terms of absenteeism across our schools. But we want to preach to our parents, the adults in the lives of these children, that they have to continue to make an investment in education," she urged.

 

She was speaking Thursday at an interministerial meeting aimed at tackling the issues plaguing schools in the seven Zones of Special Operations.

 

 

In the meantime, principals have been given latitude to modify the curriculum to improve the rate of literacy among Jamaican students.

 

Acting Chief Education Officer Dr. Kasan Troupe encouraged educators to  tailor instruction to the needs of students.

 

Dr. Troupe argued that education is meant for the benefit of the child and not for strict adherence to a curriculum while the child gets left behind. 

 

"I am telling you now, you can modify, you can put away the standard framework. We have sent out a modified curriculum called the Apps. You can use that and you can go even deeper, because the literacy must be central because nothing else will matter. They can't decode anything else, and your performance data will show that does not make sense to be teaching if the students are not benefitting," she insisted.