JIS: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information has established two ‘Time Out’ facilities to assist in the rehabilitation of students who exhibit behavioural problems.

 

The centres were opened this month at Alpha Boys’ School in Kingston and St. John Boscoe Boys’ Home in Mandeville, Manchester.

 

Chief Education Officer in the Ministry, Dr. Grace McLean, has said that 12 other similar facilities are to be opened across the island.

 

She was speaking to leaders and educators of independent and private institutions on the new National Standards Curriculum (NSC) and the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) at a sensitisation session on September 5, held at Jamaica College in Kingston.

 

“These are facilities that will support the children by providing psychosocial, psychological and psychiatric support that is required to ensure that they can be fully rehabilitated and go back to join their peers. What our time-out facilities/retreat centres do is allow them to go through a process of rehabilitation,” she explained.

 

The facilities are part of several measures being implemented by the Ministry to treat with the needs of students.

 

Dr. McLean noted that one of the measures in the rehabilitation process is the Ministry’s ‘K-13’ strategy, which provides opportunities for all students to participate and learn.

 

The ‘K-13’ strategy seeks to ensure that the education system reaches every child from conception to age 18 to facilitate proper stimulation and engagement.

 

Additionally, she said the Ministry will be working with schools to involve them in the rehabilitation of these children.

 

“We are currently working through the process that the teachers and the principals are using, so that the process aligns with the Ministry’s strategy of providing equal opportunity and equity for every single child,” she said.

 

CAPTION: Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace McLean (left), discussing Primary Exit Profile (PEP) documents with Principal of Hosanna Preparatory School, Montego Bay, Doreth Chambers, during a sensitisation session with leaders and educators of independent and private institutions on the new National Standards Curriculum (NSC) and the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), on September 5 at Jamaica College in Kingston.

JIS: Students and staff at the Runaway Bay All-Age School in St. Ann started the new school year on Monday (September 3) in more spacious surroundings.

 

Food For the Poor, through partnership with 13-year\-old donor Rafe Cochran, constructed two new blocks at the school, comprising six classrooms, bathrooms and an office area.

 

The youngster, who hails from South Florida, contributed the proceeds from his annual Rafe Cochran Golf Classic for the school expansion project.

 

School Principal, Lambert Pearson, in expressing gratitude, said the new buildings have provided improved accommodation for the institution’s 400 students.

 

“This, most certainly, will improve our conditions for learning, and I’m sure that our performance will continue to grow,” Mr. Pearson said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 31.

 

For her part, Director of Recipient Services at Food For the Poor Jamaica, Susan Moore, noted that the modern facilities provided will not only improve the school’s physical environment, but also enhance learning.

 

“At Food For the Poor, we are certainly aware of the interaction between the physical spaces and the learning environment,” she outlined.

 

“The building alone cannot infuse the passion and vision that guides the school’s development; it’s the human spirit and interaction between the teachers and the students that will make the difference and ensure the new building supports a higher level of learning,” she pointed out.

 

Ms. Moore thanked Rafe for partnering with Food For the Poor Jamaica on this “well-needed project”.

 

Rafe has been supporting the work of Food For the Poor in Jamaica through his annual golf classic, which he organised with the help of his parents, Jay and Diahann Cochran.

 

He told JIS News that his philanthropic efforts stemmed from a visit his grade-three class made to the Food For the Poor headquarters in Florida a few years ago. Since then, he has been working with the charity to erect schools and homes.

 

He said he selected Runaway Bay All-Age this year “because I truly felt the need to help. I felt if these students and teachers had a better building to provide the opportunity of education, it would motivate and help the students achieve their goals”.

Teacher, Nicolette Fisher expressed pleasure about the new additions to the school’s infrastructure. “I think it’s a great initiative, and we have more space; it’s more comfortable, so I am really looking forward to working in the space,” she said.

 

Ms. Fisher noted that with the new classrooms, which will accommodate grades four, five and six students, she expects that the school will continue to excel.

 

Parent Marlene Edwards, shared similar sentiments.

 

“We are very excited about getting these buildings. As a parent, I’m sure that my (two) children will benefit, so we are thankful to Rafe and his family, as well as Food For the Poor (Jamaica), for donating same,” she said.

 

Also expressing gratitude was 11-year-old student, Janelle Spencer, who said she was “so thrilled and thankful to Food For the Poor Jamaica for doing this for Runaway Bay All-Age School. I have been inspired today because a child (Rafe Cochran) really did this. He made this school his project, so I am really inspired”.

 

The 60-year-old Runaway Bay All-Age transitioned from the shift system in 2014, and over the years, has seen steady improvement in the Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy examination and the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

 

The school principal informed that in the first year after the shift system ended, there was a 20 per cent increase in the Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy Test passes and the scores have been trending up for GSAT as well, with passes up 11 per cent. Students are involved in the 4-H movement, reading and math clubs, Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) festival competitions, and they do well in football, cricket and athletics.

 

CAPTION: Students from the Runaway Bay All-Age School line up to view the two new classrooms blocks that were constructed by Food For the Poor in collaboration with 13-year old-donor Rafe Cochran. The new classroom blocks were officially handed over to the school’s administration on August 31.

GLEANER: WESTERN BUREAU:

 

Dr Grace McLean, chief education officer in the ministry of education, said primary school teachers and parents, who have not fully grasped the method of teaching the contents of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), will be further engaged in several sensitisation sessions this month.

 

In March this year, the government abandoned the 19-year-old Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), replacing it with PEP, which is designed to develop students into critical thinkers and innovators for the country’s workforce.

 

“Come September 12, we will be kicking off our teachers’ sensitisation session with our minister (Ruel Reid). We will take that right through to the end of September,” McLean told parents and teachers at a sensitisation session at the York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St Ann last week.

 

“We will actually be meeting with teachers, from all different types of schools, so they can interact with the minister and the team to get further information and clarification [on PEP].”

   

WEEKEND TRAINING

 

She continued, “In addition, come the end of September into October, we will be organising PEP camps, which are going to be held on weekends, because we are cognisant of the fact that parents do work and we don’t want you to take too much time off from work. We will be having these camps in selected area right across the country.

 

“These camps are going to be a little different. The setting will be one where you come with your papers, pens, pencils and computers. We will have small groups going over performance task questions, curriculum-based type questions, abilities type questions and the objectives from the curriculum.”

 

McLean said, “We will show you how it is linked, we will give you an opportunity as parents and as teachers to create your own questions, go through brainstorming questions to understand the approach that you are to use to guide your children at home, as well as for our teachers to guide our students at school. It will not stop there. Once we have the performance task mock assessment result ready, which will be by the second week in September, we will be having coaching sessions with our teachers.”

 

McLean also promised that this week the education ministry will be having the full deployment of literacy and numeracy specialists, as well as technical education officers, who will be at the schools that are in need of the support most to ensure that the PEP implementation gets off to a good start.

 

CAPTION: Dr Grace McLean

GLEANER: As a teacher for more than 20 years and curriculum, instruction and assessment specialist, I am compelled to add my voice to the ongoing discourse on the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

 

PEP is an achievement assessment and, as such, it includes ALL the various methods for determining the extent to which students are achieving the intended learning outcomes (objectives) of instruction based on the curriculum. The Grade Six Assessment Test (GSAT) was an exam that included only ONE form of assessment (traditional assessment).

 

The shift now with PEP is to move away from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills. As such, there is the shift from only traditional assessment to alternative assessment, authentic assessment and performance assessment.

 

Traditional assessment refers to paper-and-pencil test that includes true-false, multiple-choice, matching, interpretive exercise, shot-answer, restricted-response and extended-response (essay).

 

Alternative assessment refers to assessments other than the traditional assessment outlined above, and so it would include authentic and performance assessments.

 

IMPROVED SKILLS

 

Authentic assessment reflects real-life situations and performance assessment requires the students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills by actually performing a task or set of tasks. So with PEP, there is the shift from assessing knowledge and comprehension (lower-order thinking skills) to assessing application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation (higher-order thinking skills).

 

The National Standards Curriculum (NSC) is geared towards teaching better, which will result in assessing better. So gone are the days now of having an assessment entirely of multiple-choice items. Students are now required to write, supply, construct and produce answers rather than just select, choose, and identify an answer from those given.

 

This new curriculum, which includes a shift in the way teachers teach, will result in students developing critical-thinking skills as required by the new assessment, PEP.

 

PEP will better prepare students for the secondary level, tertiary level, and the world of work.

 

This shift will require more work on the part of the teachers and students, which will result in learning being more meaningful and lasting.

 

If teachers are not ready for this shift, it is saying that they are not properly trained? If this is so, there needs to be a rethinking of how we trained our teachers in this country. The truth is that teachers should be teaching to develop critical thinking in our students from ever since and not teaching to the test, as was the case with the GSAT.

 

I urge all stakeholders, teachers and parents to unite on this great initiative for the success of our students who are our future, so let us teach them better and assess them better.

 

I am also recommending continuous training of our teachers who are implementing the curriculum. Both in-service and pre-service teachers need to be fully equipped to effectively and efficiently deliver the new curriculum (NSC) and assessment (PEP).

 

I recall years ago when there was the Reform of Secondary Education curriculum, there were teacher-trainers assigned to the different regions who would see to the effective implementation of the curriculum. I was one of those teacher-trainers who would visit the schools, observe classes, and conduct workshops/training for the teachers. This is something the Ministry of Education could think of implementing. It is not late to do so.

 

So teachers, parents, other stakeholders, I urge you not to be too anxious or fearful of this shift. I encourage you to read or reread my Letter of the Day titled ‘Bye GSAT, welcome PEP’, which was published in 2012.

 

– Michael-Anthony C. Dobson-Lewis is a teacher and curriculum, instruction and assessment specialist. Email feedback to [email protected] and [email protected]

 

CAPTION: Travaune Fuller looks at his GSAT paper during day one of the exam earlier this year. File

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says the Government of Jamaica is willing to offer full scholarships to young people involved in crime and non-productive activities to enable them to pursue academics or skills training.

 

In an interview with JIS News at Excelsior Primary and Infant School in St. Andrew on Monday (September 3), during his tour of three schools at the start of the 2018/2019 academic year, Senator Reid said the Government is reaching out to these youth, through members of Parliament and government agencies that provide training opportunities.

 

“A part of my job is to make sure that our children have access to education to the highest level, and we have to work now with our members of Parliament, the Ministry of National Security and the community to now transition, to change the culture of violence,” he pointed out.

 

Senator Reid added that he wants to see more young people who engage in illegal activities take up training opportunities and become employed, thereby contributing as productive members of society.

 

“I know the members of Parliament have been encouraging many of these wrongdoers to come back to school and I am appealing to them, anybody… who is ready to go back to school. We want them to be educated and trained,” he said.

 

“The Government will make sure you have full scholarship to achieve your full potential, because we must transform Jamaica into a culture of productivity by the development of our human potential,” he noted.

 

In addition to Excelsior Primary and Infant, Minister Reid also visited Wolmer’s Boys and Jessie Ripoll Primary to observe their operations during the first day of school.

 

Minister Reid spoke with grade-six students at Jessie Ripoll and Excelsior Primary schools, who will be sitting the first Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination next year, and encouraged them not to be fearful of the inaugural series of tests they will undertake.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (right), offers words of encourgement to grade six students of Jessie Ripoll Primary School, during his visit to the instiution on Monday (September 3). Standing (at left) is Jessie Ripoll board chairman, Marcia Thwaites.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has expressed satisfaction with the start of the 2018/2019 academic year.

 

In an interview with JIS News on Monday (September 3), after visiting three schools in the Corporate Area – Wolmer’s Boys,’ Excelsior Primary and Infant, and Jessie Ripoll Primary – Minister Reid said that operations were off to a smooth start.

 

“I am very satisfied with what I’ve seen. I think full commendation should be given to the team [from the Ministry] and school administrators across the island,” he said.

 

Minister Reid informed that officials from the Ministry in the various regions across the island worked with school administrators to ensure that needs were satisfied and that the institutions had the necessary equipment and tools they required to operate effectively.

 

“For back-to-school, we actually started working from January on textbooks, repairs and furniture… . I’m very happy to see the schools are all generally ready,” he noted.

 

Meanwhile, during his visit to the schools, Minister Reid observed operations, including classroom lessons; liaised with the principals, teachers and students; and handed over copies of the National Standards Curriculum (NSC).

 

The curriculum places focus on project-based and problem-solving learning, with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and arts integrated at all levels.

 

At Wolmer’s Boys, he encouraged the students to “aim for the highest” and be respectful to their teachers and parents.

 

“I want to thank the hard-working teachers, because a lot of the outstanding successes that we can celebrate about Wolmer’s is because of the real hard, dedicated and outstanding work of the school’s teachers,” he said.

 

Minister Reid also spoke with grade-six students at Jessie Ripoll and Excelsior Primary, who will be among the cohort sitting the first Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination next year, and encouraged them not to be fearful of the inaugural series of tests that they will undertake.

 

“[PEP] is really for us to assess the knowledge and competencies of our students. We need to have a valid assessment, a true reflection of our students’ capacity and ability, and we can build on their strengths and their weaknesses,” he pointed out.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), speaking with grade-six students at Excelsior Primary School in St. Andrew, during his visit to the institution on Monday (September 3).

JIS: Some 1,007 cooks who prepare lunches for PATH beneficiaries are now being paid $323.8 million in salary directly from the Government, so that parents no longer have to worry about paying for their lunch.

 

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, said there was a 47 per cent increase in the 2017/18 budgetary allocation to the PATH programme, and with parents asked to pay $50 daily for the lunches for the students, the Government decided to take over the payment of cooks’ salaries, so parents who are poor no longer have to pay it.

 

Senator Reid was addressing parents and teachers who attended a Sensitisation and Consultation Session at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on August 28.

 

“If the child is hungry, he won’t learn, and we don’t want them to stay away from school because they have no lunch money. There should be no embarrassment, victimisation or discrimination. The children will get lunch five days a week,” the Minister said.

 

Senator Reid told the parents that in high schools where a concessionaire provides lunch, PATH recipients will also get their lunches from them.

 

“There are some concessionaires with whom we have worked out a formula between them and the school as to how to use additional funding support, because, as a policy, we are saying to schools, all the children who are vulnerable and poor must be supported by the Government,” he said.

 

On transportation, the Minister cited studies that showed some 20 per cent of students being absent from school because of transportation difficulties.

 

He said that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which now services some parts of St. Catherine, is highly subsidised, so the cost of transportation for parents in urban areas is much less than it is for those in rural Jamaica.

 

“We have built out capacity in 12 parishes, targeting the poorest of the poor, those who would not be able to send children to school because the bus fare is not there. We have given money to the school to contract private contractors to pick up your child from home, take them to school and back; so there is no excuse,” Senator Reid said.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, addresses Parent Sensitisation and Consultation Session, held at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on August 28.

JIS: The National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) will be rolling out its home-school relationship programme, ‘Stay Connected’, in three St. James-based high schools this academic year.

 

In an interview with JIS News, Chief Executive Officer at the NPSC, Kaysia Kerr, said the high schools will be selected after conducting a comprehensive analysis of the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) report.

 

This will be used to ascertain the level of parental involvement in students’ school life.

 

“We have the Stay Connected Programme in several high schools, and we intend now to add a few high schools in Montego Bay this year. We will select the high schools based on the NEI report that looks at what the parental involvement has been in particular schools, and we will use that to determine which three schools to add to the list of high schools where we have that programme in other regions,” she explained.

 

Ms. Kerr pointed out that the programme aims to empower parents with helpful tips on how to understand and handle the developmental issues associated with adolescence and maintaining a good relationship with their children throughout high school.

 

“We know that the exit exams for primary schools have become high-stake exams. Parents give a lot of support, especially at grade six. They want their children to go to their school of choice… and they [parents] are there every day staking out school compounds in support of their children… but there is a gradual waning of support when students enter high school,” she noted.

 

Ms. Kerr emphasised that this critical stage is when parents “must stick with their children” to discourage maladaptive behaviours.

 

The pilot for the Stay Connected initiative was launched in 2015 in three high schools – Norman Manley, Holy Trinity and Spanish Town – and has since expanded to include Dinthill Technical High and Papine High schools.

 

The programme is held in conjunction with the Commission’s Parent Mentorship programme, which provides support for guardians in positive parenting techniques through parent mentors.

 

CAPTION: Chief Executive Officer at the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC), Kaysia Kerr. (File)

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).