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Richard Williams, Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Infant and Primary Schools
By Kimone Witter
The Ministry of Education's target to increase literacy in primary schools by five per cent over the next two years has been described as realistic and manageable by the Jamaica Association of Infant and Primary Schools.
Education Minister Fayal Williams on Wednesday announced that the target is to get the literacy rate to 85 per cent in academic year 2024-2025 and 90 per cent for 2025-2026.
Mrs Williams said the target for the Grade Four Literacy Test for the current academic year is 80 per cent. The test has already been administered and the results are expected by November 17.
In 2019, students achieved 83 per cent mastery in literacy.
The test was not administered in 2020 and 2021, while there was a decline in mastery in 2022.
Richard Williams, Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Infant and Primary Schools, says with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in teaching and learning, the literacy targets set by the Education Ministry are feasible.
"Yes, we would want it to get 100 per cent. But I remember...I think in 2015, there was a discussion around 85 per cent would mean 100 per cent mastery because 15 per cent of the student population would be considered uneducable because of the different challenges, whether it be developmental delay or educational delay," he explained.
Mr. Williams said under the schools' improvement framework, 126 primary and 56 secondary schools, which got an unsatisfactory rating on certain key performance indicators, will be supported to get the country's literacy rate up.
He said it is imperative that adequate resources are readily available for the 248 schools which have been found to be underperforming, adding that this will ensure that the targets are met and superseded.
"We would need the pull-out sessions, smaller class, so once we identify the students who need extra support to improve their reading, we would have to make sure that we have the right amount of resources to meet them. That includes the teachers, the programme, the resources and the sessions available."
He noted that the participation of parents will also be important to provide some support at home.
The Ministry of Education says there are pilot literacy programmes in schools such as Literacy Education Acceleration Programme (LEAP) and Minister Fayval Williams has said she is impressed with the results.
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