Education Ministry to increase math contact hours in schools

By Racquel Porter    

 

Weeks after concerns were raised that Jamaica is facing a looming crisis with the continued low pass rate for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Mathematics, the Ministry of Education says it will be rolling out several tactical strategies within the school year as a solution to the issues.

 

The concerns were raised after Minister of Education Fayval Williams revealed in August that just 33 per cent of Jamaican candidates obtained passing grades in mathematics, while 74 per cent passed English A.

 

The figures decreased by eight percentage points for mathematics and two percentage points for English A when compared with 2023.

 

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Kasan Troupe, says the ministry has visited 245 schools and has assessed data in relation to performances and time allotted to execute syllabi. 

 

"So when you look for example at math, CXC syllabus said that they need 3.3 hours per week so they can complete the syllabus in two years. We have not done that well, because when we looked at some of our timetables, our students were not getting the fulsome experience. We also know that most of our learners do well because they go to private classes and extra lessons. That, in essence, is extended learning," she acknowledged. 

 

"So what we will do is to bring that into the formal process by increasing the time and task on the timetable to 5 hours of mathematics per week in these project schools that we are working with - the primary schools and the 56 high schools, for the numeracy and literacy at the primary level, and the English and math at the secondary level. So we are increasing time and task in the area that we have control over," Dr. Troupe announced. 

 

She said the Ministry of Education is providing extended learning support through software and camps.

 

Teachers will also benefit from support, through a common lesson planning time. 

 

"We are bringing in the AI into that. So no longer should it be a manual process. We can now speak to AI and tell AI what we want, who is the learner, and they will create something for us that we can build on and, of course, modify further in the space. So we are building that in for the teacher support," said the permanent secretary, who was speaking at an Education Transformation Oversight Committee Press Conference on Thursday morning.