JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says infants who enrol in Brain Builder Centres will stand a better chance at acquiring National School Leaving Certificates and successfully read for their degrees at the tertiary level.

 

He was speaking at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Regional Focal Point Meeting for the Caribbean on Thursday (August 30), at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

 

“Those students [who start with the Brain Builders Programme] would have acquired those [cognitive] skills. They are ready to learn and they [will] read for their degrees, so I am saying it will empower,” Senator Reid said.

 

“By the time the child reaches age three, their whole cognitive construction would have already been far advanced… That is what I have discovered. That is what the experimenters [have] said,” the Minister added.

 

Senator Reid also noted that Brain Builder Centres will help students with identifying skills that they are comfortable with from the basic and primary schools, and be able to choose skill-based courses easily, which are being offered through the Career Advancement Programme (CAP).

 

“My mantra is to work this thing [for] every young person in Jamaica to feel that they can aspire and get to higher education. We are doing some reform in terms of higher education and … they can go to the alternative called the Career Advancement Programme (CAP). We’ll give you [students] a menu. You can do a composite or you can decide if you’re going to focus on the technical side,” he said.

 

The Jamaica Brain Builders Programme was launched at a cost of approximately $540 million by the Ministry, in partnership with the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) on July 6.

 

The objective of the programme is to reduce cognitive learning challenges among infants in the country. It is also a framework for action in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which starts from conception in the womb to age two years.

 

Under this initiative, the ECC is responsible for establishing 126 Brain Builder Centres, with two in each constituency across the island.

 

Meanwhile, the National School Leaving Certificate will commence in September. It will consist of a certificate with data on the performance of students over their five years of secondary education, which will take into consideration their academic achievement, co-curricular participation and behaviour.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (second left), speaking with (from left) Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Focal Point in Jamaica, Dr. Phylicia Marshall; President, COL, Professor Asha Kanwar and Vice President, COL, Mr. K Balasubramanian, before the start of COL’s Regional Focal Point Meeting for the Caribbean, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (August 30).

 

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, is assuring that all is in place for a smooth start to the new academic year, which officially begins on Monday (September 3).

 

“As part of our general preparations, school plants have been renovated, furniture and other equipment have been provided and, most important, the first tranche of operational grants have been sent to our schools in good time to allow for the smooth re-opening of our institutions,” he said.

 

The Minister, who was addressing a press conference at his National Heroes Circle office  in Kingston on Thursday (August 30), informed that a total of $8.4 billion, including the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) feeding grant, is being provided to secondary-level institutions for the school year.

 

He further noted that the disbursement of funds by the Ministry to all secondary institutions is being maintained at a maximum of $19,000 per student and special support in selected areas of up to $11,000 per student.

 

Senator Reid pointed out that for the 2018/19 academic year, the Government is “honouring our commitment to increase funding to primary, all-age and junior high schools…with a budget of $4.2 billion”.

 

Notably, for this academic year, the Government has also increased the maintenance grant for high schools to $500,000, up from $50,000.

 

Additional funding support will also be provided in the new school year to cover the payment for 1,007 cooks at primary and secondary schools, which amounts to $323.1 million.

 

The Government will also assist schools by providing payments totaling $887 million for temporary and part-time staff; and $105 million will be spent on upgrading schools’ canteens and the provision of equipment.

 

In terms of support for PATH students, the Minister informed that literature books are being provided for students on PATH at all levels of the secondary system at a cost of $120 million.

 

This is in addition to $26 million in payments for insurance for students on PATH and wards of the State at all levels.

 

The Government has also allocated $2,000 for each PATH student, to cover the cost for IDs and uniform-related items for those students at the all-age and junior high levels.

 

In addition, book vouchers have been provided for the neediest students to purchase back-to-school supplies; and 18 temporary Deans of Discipline will be provided to schools.

 

Other areas of support being provided by the Ministry include the provision of grants to cover Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programmes, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes, curriculum support, and other special requests.

 

In the meantime, Senator Reid informed that guidelines have been sent to schools regarding regular grants and parent contribution. He noted that schools have been reminded that the Ministry’s non-mandatory policy towards the payment of parents’ contribution remains in place.

 

“This applies to all groups, whether they are public sector or… whatever category…there are no mandatory fees. What we have done, particularly for high schools, is to expand the range of financial support to our schools, particularly where schools had to require payments to help with paying part-time teachers and extra staff,” the Minister said.

 

“Schools are adequately funded. If they are asking for extra money, then it must be seen as optional, not mandatory,” he added.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, responds to questions from journalists during a press conference at his National Heroes Circle offices in Kingston on Thursday (Aug. 30).

JIS: State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, says curriculum reforms, which have been introduced by his Ministry, are being done to cater to the needs of the 21st century learner.

 

One such reform, Mr. Green noted, is the National Standards Curriculum (NSC), which aims to enhance the quality of education offered to learners and improve the general academic performance, attitude and behaviour of students.

 

“We started the NSC with our grades one and four students, and this curriculum centres around ensuring that our students learn to collaborate and are critical thinkers. These are the characteristics that our students need to survive in the 21st century,” Mr. Green said.

 

He was speaking at a breakfast meeting for principals, vice principals and heads of department, hosted by the University of the West Indies’ School of Education, at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre on August 30.

 

It was held under the theme ‘Preparing teachers for 21st century learners’.

 

Mr. Green hailed the School of Education for hosting the timely forum, as it seeks to implement its own reform of the practicum component of its student-teacher training.

 

The reform, among other things, will enable student-teachers in their first semester of their final year to spend a longer, more enriching time in the classrooms in which they are assigned to teach before they graduate.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Green informed that a stronger partnership between the Ministry and the University’s School of Education is needed, in order to overcome the challenge of placing student-teachers in schools.

 

“I think the University has to come in a bit earlier to meet with our team at the Ministry to work with our slate of schools to ensure they are amenable to student-teachers. This is a necessary path of the development of our learners,” he said.

 

Campus Registrar, Camille Bell-Hutchinson, in her remarks, noted that 21st century learners have to be equipped with skills that make them adaptable to the environment in which they live.

 

She said principals need to think differently about learning in the 21st century “to be able to support teachers when you go out there to help them become agents of change for 21st century students”.

 

Practicum Coordinator at the School of Education, Dr. Dian McCallum, said in a JIS News interview that the forum was geared at informing school administrators of the new changes to the student-teacher practicum this year and to enable the administrators to raise questions.

 

“When student-teachers go out to schools now they will be like full-time teachers because they are not only going to be teaching classes, but they should be attending staff meetings, going to departmental meetings and getting involved in parent-teacher conferences,” she said.

 

CAPTION: State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green (left), converses with University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Registrar, Camille Bell-Hutchinson, at a breakfast meeting hosted by the University of the West Indies’ School of Education, at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre on August 30.

JIS: The Education Ministry will be engaging teachers and parents in a series of sensitisation sessions, beginning in September, to ensure a seamless implementation of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination.

 

This was noted by Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace Mclean, during a session with parents at York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, on August 29.

 

The PEP, which is slated to begin in the September 2018/19 academic year, will replace the 19-year-old Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) as the national secondary school entrance test.

 

According to Dr. McLean, come September 12, the Ministry will kick-start a teacher sensitisation session to furnish teachers with additional information on PEP as well as clarify any misunderstanding.

 

Those sessions, which will involve Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator, the Hon. Ruel Reid, will continue until the end of September.

 

Meanwhile, in a bid to bring parents up to par with PEP, the Ministry will be organising a series of PEP camps starting at the end of September.

 

Dr. McLean explained that the camps will be held in selected areas across the island on the weekend, and will educate parents on the methodology to be used to guide students in completing PEP-related tasks.

 

“The setting will be one where you will come with your paper and your pens and your pencils and your computers, and we will have small groups where we will have performance task questions, and ability-type questions,” she said.

 

“We will have the objectives from the curriculum, we will show you how they are linked and we will give you the opportunity as parents and as teachers to create your own questions, to go through brainstorming sessions, and to understand the approach that you are expected to use to guide your children at home,” Dr. McLean added.

 

The Chief Education Officer said that on the release of the PEP performance task mock-examination results in the second week of September, the Ministry will commence coaching sessions with teachers who will administer PEP.

 

She added that there will be full deployment of literacy and numeracy specialists in schools at the start of the 2018/2019 academic year, and the Ministry’s technical education officers will be dispatched to schools that need the additional support, “to ensure that the implementation gets off to a good start”.

 

In the meantime, Senator Reid encouraged parents to play a role in getting children to become critical thinkers and problem-solvers.

 

“We cannot take the view now that our children need to be seen and not heard. For them to develop their capacity to think and become problem-solvers, we need to not only listen to them but reason with them. We need to have conversations, we need to discuss issues with them, get their viewpoint, and ask for their suggestion on how they would solve some of the problems that you have,” he told the parents.

 

CAPTION: Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace McLean (right), responding to questions posed by parents at a sensitisation session held at York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, on Wednesday (August 29). To her right is Regional Director, Region Three, Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Sophia Forbes Hall.

JIS: Educators in western Jamaica say they are approaching the 2018/2019 academic year with a renewed sense of optimism.

 

This optimism, they note, stems from the ever increasing willingness of parents to get involved in school activities, and also what they are calling “a more transparent and proactive approach” on the part of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and its regional bodies in engaging teachers, principals and other stakeholders in meaningful dialogue.

 

“It sure helps and makes life a lot easier if there is the belief that all hands are on deck,” says Principal for the John Rollins Success Primary School in Barrett Town, St. James, Yvonne Williams-Wisdom.

 

“With the 1,000-plus students that are expected to be roaring through our corridors come next Monday (September 3), of course we have had to do some extensive preparations… and which we could never have accomplished without the help of our school community,” she tells JIS News.

 

Mrs. Williams-Wisdom further notes that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information must be commended for “its unwavering commitment” to the continuation of the lunch and breakfast programmes for needy students and also for being there to assist with “our preparations”.

 

“I must also send a big shout-out to our parents who have been there every step of the way. Of course, we will still have our fair share of challenges, but from where I sit, I am confident we are ready for the start of the new school year,” she says.

 

For her part, Vice-Principal of Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, Emily Ricketts, says while challenges continue, one of the main pressure points is the increasing number of requests by students and their parents for transfer to her school.

 

“Godfrey Stewart has emerged as a school of choice for many students in Westmoreland. Unfortunately, especially so close to the start of back-to-school, we are unable to accommodate many of the transfer requests we have been getting,” she says.

 

Ms. Ricketts tells JIS News that because of early preparations throughout the summer, the school is well prepared to open its doors for students come Monday.

 

“We are all very positive and excited about the prospects of a very good school year,” she adds.

 

Over at Maldon Primary in Maroon Town, St. James, optimism for the new school term could not be any higher. “We continue to have our fair share of problems with water and also the need for some infrastructural upgrade at our facility,” Principal Audrey Bernard-Kilbourne explained.

 

“We, however, have been good and adept at working with what we have, and our dedicated teachers and students are ready for whatever lies ahead. Yes, we are ready for the new school term,” she says.

 

In the meantime, over in Montego Bay at Cornwall College, Principal, Michael Ellis, says expectations are also high.

 

“September morning will be a new day for Cornwall College,” he told the gathering at a recent graduation ceremony for the Cornwall College Class of 2018 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

 

The Principal notes that the new school term will be seeing the ushering of a new master plan –‘Operation Regain and Retain’ –a plan aimed at returning Cornwall College to its famed glory days.

 

CAPTION: Students from across the western region at a joint Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade symposium at the William Knibb High School in Falmouth, Trelawny.

JIS: Cabinet has approved the awarding of a contract, valued US$1,941,848.34, to Carlong Publishers Limited to supply and distribute textbooks for students in grades one to three islandwide, under the Government’s 2018/19 Primary Textbook Programme.

 

The company has also been awarded a contract in the sum of $110,593,387.65 to procure and distribute textbooks for students under the National Textbook Loan Scheme for the new academic year.

 

This was disclosed by Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, during Wednesday’s (August 29) post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House.

 

He advised that Carlong is one of three companies contracted under the National Textbook Loan Scheme for 2018/19.

 

The others are Kingston Bookshop Limited and Book Wizard Limited, which have been awarded contracts valued $210,517,535.14 and $65,587,200, respectively

 

Meanwhile, Senator Reid advised that Cabinet approved the annual reports and audited statements of seven State entities for tabling in Parliament.

 

These are the 2016/17 annual reports and audited statements for the Casino Gaming Commission, Kingston Freezone Company Limited, Rural Agricultural Development Authority, and Nutrition Products Limited; the 2016/17 annual reports of the Overseas Examinations Commission and the Management Institute for National Development; and the 2017/18 annual report of the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons.

 

CAPTION: Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), converses with Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Fayval Williams, at Wednesday’s (August 29) post-Cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House.

JIS: Equipping parents with effective parenting skills is believed to be a powerful strategy to help keep children on the right path, and the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC), has been making strides in accomplishing that goal.

 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commission, an agency of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Kaysia Kerr, says its mandate is to offer proactive and reactive parenting education and support.

 

Proactive education speaks to the reception of knowledge prior to the consideration of conceiving a child, whilst reactive education delves into the determinants of effective parenting by offering psychosocial support and education.

 

To achieve this, the NPSC’s machinery has been mobilised in eastern parishes, working in homes, schools, communities and with other government agencies to promote good parenting practices, and crafting intervention measures for parents who have been struggling with child-rearing.

 

Ms. Kerr tells JIS News that the Commission’s policies and programmes have reached over 10,000 parents, with efforts being made to expand its reach.

 

As such, the NPSC has now turned its attention to western Jamaica, with aggressive work already being done in Mount Salem, St. James (Zone of Special Operations), through parent mentorship and the establishment of a Parent Place at Emmanuel Chapel.

 

The Parent Place thrust forms part of the USAID/Ministry of Education’s partnership for Improved Safety and Security in Schools, which is intended to reduce antisocial behaviour among youth and reduce the ability of criminal elements gaining access to school premises.

 

“We have been working primarily in the Zone of Special Operations in St James, and this was deliberate, because the Social Development Commission’s findings said that it was poor parenting that was responsible for one of the drivers of crime, and so that is something that we can’t take lightly,” she says.

 

Parent mentors who have been trained under the NPSC’s Parent Mentorship Programme have been working with parents in Mount Salem who need parenting advice and have been reaping some amount of success.

 

Mark Rodney from Trench Town (Kingston) is one such parent mentor who has been working in Mount Salem.

 

For Mr. Rodney, volunteering to work in the community stems from the need for more men to become involved in the lives of their children and the wider society.

 

A father of four, he says several parents, in particular single mothers, have sought the support of mentors at the Parent Place, and that intervention strategies are offered based on the needs of each parent.

 

“They are at ease in trying to get remedies for their problems, because we actually do the necessary groundwork, we take their information, we scrutinise them and we see what we can do,” he explains.

 

“So we really scrutinise the problems and we see what the best avenue is – if it is for referral or we can do what we do best,” Mr. Rodney adds.

 

Shelby Spaulding is also among the group of parent mentors who traverse the Mount Salem community on foot, extending invitation to parents to utilise the services of the Parent Place.

 

She tells JIS News that parents have been receptive of their efforts, with some expressing an interest in becoming mentors themselves.

 

“I walk the community and try to get persons to visit the Parent Place, which they say is a wonderful thing and they want us to come down more, because they see the need for it. Some of them want to become mentors,” she notes.

 

Ms. Kerr echoes similar sentiments of the need for St James-based mentors, noting that two additional Parent Places will be opened in the parish at the end of September, with 30 persons currently being trained to work in those facilities.

 

“We are training parents in Montego Bay to be mentors, so that they can give the same kind of support at home and at school and to their communities. What we have been doing is deploying our parent mentors who have been trained in Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas and St. Catherine to Montego Bay, and that is not something we can sustain,” she says.

 

Ms. Kerr tells JIS News that a Parent Place will also be established in Hanover, with the training of some 45 parent mentors to begin in September.

 

“We have to do this because if we don’t strengthen the capacity of parents, then the home-school relationship is threatened,” she argues.

 

CAPTION: Chief Executive Officer of the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC), Kaysia Kerr (fifth left, front row), with parent mentors from Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas, and St. Catherine at the Parent Place, at the Emmanuel Chapel in Mount Salem, St. James.

JIS: Chairperson of the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), Trisha Williams-Singh, is reminding operators of early-childhood institutions (ECI) that they are required to register their institutions with the ECC.

 

“If you are registered, that means you are operating legally. So, if you are not registered… you are operating illegally,” Mrs. Williams-Singh said.

 

She was speaking at a function held recently at the offices of the National Volunteer Centre, Camp Road in Kingston.

 

“I use this opportunity to say to you, get on the books, do right by the children of Jamaica,” the Chairman urged.

 

Under the Early Childhood Act and Regulations of 2005, all ECIs operating in Jamaica must be registered with the ECC, which is the sector’s regulatory agency.

 

As part of the registration process, institutions must satisfy standards for health and safety (public health and fire safety reports, and police records); and educational quality, including teacher-qualification certificates. They must also pass a stringent inspection process.

 

The ECC was established in 2003 by the Early Childhood Commission Act. Its functions include advising the Minister on policy matters relating to early-childhood care, education and development in Jamaica.

 

These include initiatives and actions to achieve national early-childhood development goals; assisting in the preparation of plans and programmes concerning early-childhood development; and monitoring and evaluating the system.

 

CAPTION: Early Childhood Commission (ECC) Chair, Trisha Williams-Singh (left), listens to Executive Director of the Commission, Karlene Degrasse-Deslandes.

JIS: The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) is encouraging parents to take advantage of the varied options to minimise expenses for the purchase of textbooks for the 2018/19 academic year.

 

Speaking with JIS News, Communications Specialist at the CAC, Dorothy Campbell, outlines some of the options that parents can explore to ensure that their children are equipped with the necessary books for the new school year.

 

Among the options are school-book rental schemes and using social media platforms to facilitate book exchanges or buying books advertised on these platforms at a discounted rate.

 

Another option, she recommends, is the purchase of books from independent distributors who have established relationships with schools to supply textbooks at a reasonable cost.

 

Ms. Campbell is advising parents to check that these online books have the current information that is being used by the teacher.

 

“The CAC is all about ensuring that parents are empowered with whatever information or tools are available, so the online access is very important. However, I would caution that students who may choose to use online versions of a textbook to ensure that it is the correct edition, because sometimes there are slight revisions or very significant revisions that will entail an entire chapter being inserted, or the text may be time-sensitive,” she tells JIS News.

 

Ms. Campbell also recommends that parents check whether the books are under revision. This can be done by comparing the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) with that of the most recent edition.

 

The ISBN is a 10- or 13-digit number that identifies a specific registered book, an edition of a book, or a book-like product (such as an audio book).

 

“Check to make sure that they match, because a book may carry the same writer, same title – everything – but that critical line …which says revised edition (with the year) is vital, as it may impact critical material,” she explains.

 

Ms. Campbell notes that an important part of planning are the orientation exercises hosted by schools, and urges parents to attend these sessions as they can give parents valuable information to assist in managing back-to-school expenses.

 

“Ensure that you participate in the orientation sessions and that you take notes. If the opportunity arises, ensure that you meet your child’s homeroom teacher, and network with other school officials and parents to find out what are the critical items that you need to get,” she says.

 

Students are also encouraged to take note of any information from the schools during the first week about books that may no longer be relevant for the course or will not be used in the first term.

 

“The teacher will be able to tell them if they need ‘literature book A’ for the first term, but don’t need the other two until later down in the year, so you only need to purchase one instead of three at once. You can delay buying those until you are in a position to do so. It is important that you talk to your child. We want parents to exhaust these opportunities before they go off and purchase new books in stores,” Ms. Campbell says.

 

She also advises parents to check with community civic groups, including churches and parent-teacher associations (PTAs), for any opportunity to access used books at special prices.

 

Additionally, Ms. Campbell is also encouraging parents to use the Price Inquiry Tool Portal on the CAC’s website in their planning and management of purchases.

 

“What we are asking parents to do is, if they have access to the Internet, they can visit our website at www.cac.gov.jm and use the price enquiry tool to select the store from one of the 90 outlets.

 

They will see the prices, and they can plan for the amount of money they have to spend, what they can purchase now, versus what they can purchase in a couple of weeks,” she says.

 

Parents can also use the CAC Annual Textbook Survey on the website as a shopping guide.

 

This year’s survey indicates that there is an overall two per cent increase in the average price islandwide for all texts out of 90 retailers surveyed.

 

Of the 90 bookstores visited between July 23 and 27, some 26 are located in the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area (Kingston, St. Andrew, Portmore and Spanish Town) and 64 from other urban and rural towns of all the parishes, including St. Catherine.

 

A total of 133 popular textbooks were surveyed, consisting of 90 secondary-level, 30 primary-level and 13 infant-level textbooks covering 17 subject areas.

 

The results of the survey revealed the following: a five per cent increase in prices for infant-school texts, with an average cost of $1,224.95 in 62 per cent of the stores; a four per cent price increase for primary-school texts, with an average cost of $1,566.73 in 64 per cent of stores; a one per cent decrease in grades seven to nine texts, with an average cost of $1,795.85 in 39 per cent of stores; and a one per cent decrease in CSEC/CAPE texts, with an average cost of $3,578.36 in 23 per cent of stores surveyed.

 

CAPTION: Communications Specialist at the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC), Dorothy Campbell, speaks at a JIS ‘Think Tank’.

JIS: Leading PR1ME Mathematics Specialist from Singapore, Kelly Lim Kai Ling, recently conducted a special two-and-a-half-hour mathematics lesson with several grade-five students and two teachers from the New Providence Primary School in Kingston.

 

This session was facilitated by The Book Merchant Limited (BML), organiser of the Amazing Mathematics Powers (AMP)…PR1MEd for Success workshop, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, which for the past 13 years has adopted the New Providence Primary School.

 

Ms. Lim Kai Ling was in Jamaica to lead the sessions at the second staging of the AMP…PR1MEd for Success workshop, which was held from August 21 to 23 at the Shortwood Teachers’ College, in Kingston.

 

“We took advantage of the visit of the Singaporean trainer to assist teachers and students at the New Providence Primary School. The teachers observed the lesson, which will assist them as they prepare for their own lesson delivery for the new National Standards Curriculum and the Primary Exit Profile (PEP),” Chief Executive Officer of BML, Sharon Neita, told JIS News.

 

President of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Howard Smith, welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with the BML, as education and literacy is one of six areas of focus for the club.

 

“We thought it was a good idea to partner with another company to do maths intervention, which is essential, based on the current challenges that persons are having with (the subject),” he explained.

 

The service club provided lunch for all the participants. Feedback from all present at the session was very positive.

 

For student, Kebra Simpson, the teaching session by Ms. Lim Kai Ling was fun. “She explained the information clearly and taught us how to draw out the bar model for problem-solving,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, the mathematics expert was equally impressed with the students. She described them as “very well behaved”, adding that “they were open-minded, eager to learn and very responsive”.

 

She pointed out that prior to the start of the session, she checked their knowledge of concepts taught in grades three and four and was impressed with their retention of the concepts.

 

“In Singapore, our teachers are supervised to make sure that they will have student achievement,” Ms. Lim Kai Ling noted. For grade-four teacher, Nicole Thompson, who is also trained in PR1ME Mathematics, the material presented by Ms. Lim Kai Ling assisted in strategies for solving problems and critical thinking.

 

Mrs. Thompson commended the parents and guardians who sent the children out and expressed delight at the turnout of students.

 

“This is my corner of the world, and I try to make a difference here. The children came, as their parents responded very well to my WhatsApp note to come out for this extra mathematics class,” she said.

 

More than 600 primary-school mathematics teachers, coaches and specialists from Jamaica, Belize and Barbados participated in the Amazing Mathematics Powers (AMP)…PR1MEd for Success workshop, which was fully endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.

 

CAPTION: Students of Ne Providence Primary School in Kingston and their teacher, Nicole Thomson (left, background), take part in a Mathematics lesson with PR1ME Mathematics Specialist, Kelly Lim Kai Ling (right), recently at the school. The class was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains and The Book Merchant Limited (BML). Ms. Lim Kai Ling was in Jamaica as the leading facilitator at the second staging of BML’s ‘Amazing Mathematics Powers (AMP)… PR1MEd for Success’ workshop for teachers that was held at the Shortwood Teachers’ College in Kingston from August 21 to 23.