JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says there was no fallout in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results from the state of emergency (SOE) and zones of special operations (ZOSOs).

 

“Overall, to the credit of our students, parents and teachers, they have demonstrated resilience. We see no trend at all from any of the exam types… that there has been any marked decline in overall performance,” Mr. Reid said at a press conference at the Ministry on Tuesday (June 5) to announce the results of the exam.

 

“We will have to do some more disaggregation of the data, but from the results I have reported, we see positive movements (overall), separate and apart from Mathematics, where we knew that there was a problem and we had interventions,” he noted.

 

An SOE is in operation in St. Catherine North, while ZOSOs are in effect in Mount Salem, St. James and Denham Town in West Kingston.

 

The Education Minister noted that the presence of the security forces in the communities have enabled the schools to focus on teaching and learning.

 

“Where we have had a state of emergency or zones of special operations, it has actually been positive, because what has happened is that we’ve had more controlled environments, reduction of crime and so on, and the improvement in leadership within our schools,” he said.

 

“Our teachers track the performance and the progress of our students and they give extra attention and more time to get the students ready,” he added.

 

The Minister announced that there was improved performance in four of five subject areas in GSAT.

 

Science was the biggest gainer, moving by 7.9 per cent to 72. 6 per cent from 64.7 per cent last year.

 

Passes in Communication Task jumped by 5.5 per cent to 81.7 per cent from 76.2 per cent; Social Studies moved by 1.6 per cent to 72. 2 per cent from 70.6 per cent; and Language Arts improved by one per cent to 73.8 per cent from 72.8 per cent.

 

Passes in Mathematics were 61.2 per cent, representing a 1.2 per cent decline over the 62.4 per cent recorded in 2017.

 

A total of 39,510 students (19,295 boys and 20,215 girls) were registered to sit GSAT in March, of which 30,789 (80 per cent) of these students were placed in one of their preferred schools.

 

Seventeen per cent, that is 6,524 students, were placed in secondary level schools that are within proximity of the institutions that they currently attend, and a further 1,438 students were placed manually in secondary-level schools in proximity to the address they submitted.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, delivers the results of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) at the Ministry in Kingston on Tuesday (June 5).

JIS: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is partnering with the School of Education at the University at the West Indies (UWI), Mona, St. Andrew, to award 200 scholarships to educators, and individuals desirous of pursuing training in teacher education.

 

Addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, at the Agency’s head office in Kingston on Wednesday (June 6), Undergraduate Coordinator and Deputy Dean at the School of Education, Dr. Aisha Spencer, said the scholarships will target two categories of potential candidates.

 

These, she indicated, are in-service students who will pursue a 66-credit programme, and pre-service students who will have the opportunity to pursue a 90-credit programme.

 

Dr. Spencer explained that in-service students would have already gained a teaching diploma, but are currently teaching Mathematics, English Language and Geography without the requisite bachelor’s degree.

 

The pre-service student programme in Mathematics and Science is designed for persons who have only completed high school or are accessing teacher training for the first time. Lecturer and Business Development Coordinator at the School, Dr. Canute Thompson, disclosed that 100 scholarships will be available for each category of candidates. Each scholarship is valued at approximately $300,000 per annum per student.

 

He indicated that the scholarships are funded by the Government of Jamaica and will cover tuition, housing, books and other critical amenities that are required for the awardees to pursue their studies.

 

The in-service scholarships are open to teachers in public schools at the secondary level, while persons wishing to pursue the pre-service programme must be Jamaican with at least five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate subjects at grade one or two, and two Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination subjects between grades one and four. The Ministry of Education is now accepting applications, the deadline for which has been extended to June 30.

 

Dr. Spencer encourages school principals and heads of departments to support teachers who are seeking to access these programmes, especially the scholarships.

 

CAPTION: Undergraduate Coordinator and Deputy Dean at the School of Education, University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr. Aisha Spencer, addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank at the Agency’s head office in Kingston on Wednesday (June 6). Looking on is Lecturer and Business Development Coordinator at the School of Education, Dr. Canute Thompson.

THE GLEANER: Education Minister Senator Ruel Reid has said that, from a policy standpoint, zoning of secondary schools was inevitable and should begin to take shape within another 10 years.

 

Speaking yesterday at a press conference to announce student performance in the 2018 sitting of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), the results of which will be available to schools online and at regional offices tomorrow, Reid said that zoning would have to be preceded by taking the remaining 21 high schools off the shift system and completing the construction of 17 new high schools.

 

“We actually now have more than adequate capacity at the early childhood and primary level. But at the secondary level, we need to close that gap, and once we close that gap, we can better rationalise how we do placement,” said Reid. “So, I want to signal, by policy, that zoning is inevitable,” he added.

 

The proposed zoning system would see students being mandated to attend secondary schools within a particular geographic region, usually within proximity of their residence.

 

Meanwhile, Reid reported that the education ministry would place 100 per cent of the 39,510 students who sat the March 2018 GSAT in high schools.

 

“This is a very good achievement for all of us as a country that has struggled for many years to get all our students placed in high schools,” Reid declared.

 

He further disclosed that 80 per cent (30,789) of the cohort was placed in one of their preferred schools with another 17 per cent (6,524) in schools that are in proximity to the institutions they currently attend.

 

The remaining three per cent (1,438) were placed manually in high schools in proximity to the address they submitted.

 

Reid reiterated that come next year, GSAT will be replaced by the Primary Exit Profile, making this year’s students the last cohort to sit the exam.

 

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CAPTION: Education Minister Ruel Reid addressed a press briefing yesterday on performances in the most recent Grade Six Achievement Test, the results of which will be made available to schools online at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow and later at regional offices by 2:00 p.m.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has announced that there were improved performances in four of the five subjects used for testing in the final sitting of the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

 

The subjects are Language Arts, Communication Task, Science and Social Studies.

 

The overall students’ mean per cent scores for Language Arts, Communication Task, Science and Social Studies showed improvement over the previous year’s performance by one per cent, 5.5 per cent, 7.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.

 

Addressing a press conference at the Ministry on Tuesday (June 5), Senator Reid said the Government of Jamaica is pleased to have on record an increase in students’ performance in these four areas, especially Communication Task.

 

“We have seen that, overall, there has been a positive trend in the right direction. Communication Task, which is a written component of these exams, achieved the largest percentage point increase. This is encouraging, as it shows that the students have been developing the skills of critical thinking and are able to express themselves,” the Minister said.

 

He added that all students who sat the GSAT in March have been placed in full secondary-level institutions.

 

“The Ministry, this year, has placed all students in full secondary-level institutions, an improvement over last year by one per cent. Last year, we achieved 99 per cent and this year, I said we were going to deliver and get 100 per cent… . We have,” he said.

 

A total of 39,510 students (19,295 boys and 20,215 girls) were registered to sit GSAT in March, of which 30,789 (80 per cent) of students were placed in one of their preferred schools. Seventeen per cent or 6,524 students were placed in secondary-level schools that are in close proximity to the schools they currently attend, and a further 1,438 students were placed manually in secondary-level schools in proximity to the address they submitted.

 

Senator Reid offered congratulations to each student who sat GSAT. “The entire Ministry congratulates all students on their performance and wishes them continued success in pursuing their education beyond the primary level,” he said.

 

The results for the 2018 GSAT will be made available on Thursday, June 7 at 6:00 a.m. to schools at the primary level. Principals at the primary level who do not have access to the Internet, can collect the printed results from their respective regional office by 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 7.

 

School administrators at the primary level are also reminded to check the results carefully and communicate any concerns/queries by Monday, June 11.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, addresses press conference on the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, National Heroes Circle, in Kingston on Tuesday (June 5).

JIS: The Dunrobin Primary School in St. Andrew is now better able to accommodate children with disabilities, following the recent installation of a wheelchair ramp under the Government’s Ramps for Schools project.

 

The institution, located at 47A Red Hills Road, has one student on roll who is wheelchair bound.

 

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, said that the Government is committed to providing an inclusive education system whereby all students can have access.

 

“We are not going to stop at the ramps. We are going to make sure our bathroom facilities cater for those with physical disabilities,” he said at the blessing and ribbon cutting ceremony for the amenity this morning (June 5).

 

Senator Reid noted that with the revised special education curriculum and the bolstering of specialised teacher support, the education sector is in a better position to cater for the various needs of children.

 

He said Dunrobin Primary must be an example of excellence and inclusive education.

 

Principal of the school, Noel Watt, expressed gratitude that the institution was selected to benefit under the Ramps for Schools project.

 

Tamara Brown, parent of 11-year-old Alex Fraser, who is the sole physically challenged student at the institution, also voiced her appreciation, noting that it was difficult for her child to get around.

 

She noted that although her son will be leaving Dunrobin Primary for secondary school this year, the ramp will improve the mobility of any other wheelchair-bound student who attends the institution.

 

Ms. Brown told JIS News that the students at the institution have been very kind to her son, who is awaiting his Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results. “The students love him, I can’t complain; they have been so good to him,” she said.

 

The Government has allocated $50 million for the installation of wheelchair ramps at public educational institutions across the island under the Ramps for Schools project. The initiative, which will run initially for one year, commenced on Labour Day (May 23) with construction works at 18 institutions, including the St. Ann’s Bay Infant School, which was a national Labour Day project.

 

Another 112 schools are being targeted, to bring the total to 130 over the course of the year.

 

Data from the National Education Trust (NET), which is the implementing entity for the project, indicates that of Jamaica’s 971 public infant, primary and high schools, and over 2,000 early-childhood institutions, only 138 primary and high schools are fitted with ramps.

 

CAPTION (MAIN PHOTO): Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), assists student of Dunrobin Primary, Alex Fraser, in accessing the wheelchair ramp at the institution located at 47A Red Hills Road in St. Andrew, following a blessing and ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 5. The ramp was installed under the Government’s Ramps for Schools project.

 

CAPTION (IN STORY): Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left) and student, Dunrobin Primary School, Alex Fraser (foreground), cut the ribbon to open the wheelchair ramp at the institution located at 47A Red Hills Road, St. Andrew, on Tuesday (June 5). At third left is Alex’s mother Tamara Brown.

 

JIS: Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, says the commissioning of Youth Innovation Centres across the island will assist in the fight against crime.

 

Mr. Green, who was speaking at the official launch of the Westmoreland Youth Innovation Centre, at Llandilo, on May 31, said the real fight against crime “is touching people and providing them with a different pathway (through) education, training and personal development.”

 

He argued that although the other crime-fighting strategies cannot be ignored, he believes that the Ministry is the first line in the defence in relation to safety and security in Jamaica.

 

In this regard, his says the Innovation Centres will provide a channel through which youth can create employment for themselves and for others.

 

“These centres are now about creating the next generation of entrepreneurs in our country. We know that every youth in Jamaica has a business idea… if you go into a classroom and talk to them, they can give you a myriad of ideas. We know that our youth are talented, they are innovative, and they are very creative,” he said.

 

In the meantime, he explained that the Innovation Centres will double as Homework Centres to encourage youth to invest in the future of their communities.

 

“When our youth, who are younger, come into the space, and they are having other young people help them with their homework, can you imagine that engagement and the bond that starts to form? More importantly, they can also now directly flow into the other programmes that we have to offer,” he noted.

 

He said efforts will also be made to revitalise the youth club movement across the parish to create an avenue through which youth can have a “sense of belonging.”

 

“When you go to the clubs, you feel important, you have a network of friends, you can get a position, and they give you something to plan,” he said.

 

Mr. Green explained that the clubs, having been dormant, have created a void which has been filled by the involvement of the youth in gangs.

 

He said the Innovation Centre will provide the space through which clubs can congregate, meet and plan and, ultimately, become social enterprises that will help to build the community and sustain the clubs.

 

CAPTION: Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, speaks at the official launch of the Westmoreland Youth Innovation Centre, at Llandilo, on Thursday (May 31).

JIS: A seven-year birth cohort study conducted by a team of University of the West Indies (UWI) researchers has been presented at a two-day conference, beginning today (May 31), at the Sir Kenneth Standard Lecture Theatre.

 

It aims to improve the health and well-being of Jamaica’s children by providing valuable data on the relationships among a wide range of family, school, community, environmental and individual variables.

 

It will also contribute to greater understanding of the various factors that influence health and disease, as well as social and emotional development in young children.

 

Titled, ‘JA KIDS: The Jamaican Birth Cohort Study 2011’, the study included all the children born in the 14 parishes across Jamaica from July 1 to September 30, 2011.

 

Approximately 11,124 children were born in Jamaica during this period. Participants were recruited while pregnant during March to September 2011. Subsequently, contact was made with families when their children were 9-12 months, 18-22 months and 48 – to 54 months.

 

At each contact, participants were asked questions about their health and well-being, their child’s growth and development, the child’s environment, nutrition and parental practices.

 

In her address at the opening ceremony for the conference on Wednesday (May 30), at the venue, Patron of the JA KIDS conference and wife of the Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Juliet Holness, said the initiative will assist in laying the foundation for a prosperous Jamaica.

 

“The foundations are our children. They represent the hopes and dreams of our nation. It is investing in them as well as investigating their needs, their strengths and their vulnerabilities that we will enable and be better prepared to appropriately cater to their social needs, physical needs and their economic infrastructure, which will undoubtedly ensure that Jamaica will be established as a place where we can comfortably live, work raise our families, do business and retire in prosperous peace,” she said.

 

Noting that fatherhood remains an issue in Jamaica, Mrs. Holness called on men to assume their rightful place in the lives of their children.

 

She emphasised that this would lead to a balanced adulthood for these children, as “an environment of sharing and equality is crucial to a well prepared and conditioned adult.”

 

In his address, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, commended the research team for the important work they have been doing to assist in improving the development outcomes of the nation’s children.

 

“The Ministry recognises that in establishing our policies and programmes, we will be focusing on early interventions, child development and academic achievement, and our efforts must be underpinned by indepth research,” the Minister said.

 

“Evidence is crucial in supporting these initiatives. Armed with information, we are better able to allocate both financial and human resources for each sector that supports the development of our children,” he added.

 

Principal Investigator, JA KIDS, and Professor of Child Health, Development and Behaviour, Maureen Samms-Vaughan is quoted in a UWI Mona press release as saying: “We expect the findings from the JA KIDS study to benefit Jamaica by providing the health, education, social and academic sectors with information from which to develop national policies and programmes to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children and families.”

 

Representative from international funding agency, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Chief of Operations, Adriana Lavalley, said the Bank was pleased to assist in improving the lives of Jamaica’s children.

 

“As a knowledge-focused institution, the Bank welcomes the ways in which JA KIDS will deepen our understanding of the various factors that influence health, growth and development in young children and importantly, how it will enable the design and implementation of public policies, interventions and programmes that are evidence- based,” she noted.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (right) and the Most Hon. Juliet Holness (second right), cut the ribbon to open the inaugural conference exhibition for ‘JA KIDS: The Jamaican Birth Cohort Study 2011’, on Wednesday (May 30) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, in Kingston. Others sharing the occasion (from left) are: Professor of Child Health, Development and Behaviour, Maureen Samms-Vaughan; Education Specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Annelle Bellony; Study Director for JA KIDS, Dr. Charlene Coore Desai and Chief of Operations, IDB, Adriana Lavalley.

JIS: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is assuring Jamaicans that all the necessary mechanisms will be in place for the implementation of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) in 2019.

 

Addressing a JIS Think Tank recently, Manager of the Student Assessment Unit, Terry-Ann Thomas Gayle, said that the necessary steps are being taken to ensure that there is seamless transition from the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) to PEP.

 

As part of the public education campaign, which started in 2017, town hall meetings have been held in all 14 parishes, and Ministry personnel have met with over 10,000 parents to educate them about the new secondary placement examination.

 

Mrs. Thomas Gayle said that key stakeholders within the education sector have been trained, including assessment coordinators, on how to interpret the curriculum objectives, write rubrics, and write items to assess the curriculum.

 

She noted that every primary school is assigned an assessment coordinator whose responsibility is to ensure that teachers are delivering the curriculum effectively.

 

Mrs. Thomas Gayle said teachers for grades four and five have also benefited from training on interpreting the curriculum objectives and writing assessments at the formative level to develop the critical-thinking skills.

 

They also received instruction on how to administer the Performance Task tests and how students are expected to respond to test questions.

 

Principals in four educational regions have been trained to lead the assessment at their respective schools, and they were also exposed to all the areas in which the teachers have been trained.

 

Members of the Book Industry of Jamaica were included in some aspects of the training sessions.

 

Mrs. Thomas Gayle told JIS News that training will continue throughout the summer with the grade-six teachers. During the period, the Student Assessment Unit will release a specimen paper with sample items to teachers.

 

She is advising members of the public who have questions or concerns to contact the Ministry via WhatsApp at 876-455-3003, e-mail: [email protected], and through Facebook or Twitter @MOEYIJamaica.

 

CAPTION: Manager of the Student Assessment Unit in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Terry-Ann Thomas Gayle, addressing a recent JIS Think Tank .

 

JIS: Children are being warned to desist from oversharing personal information on social media platforms, as a worrying trend has emerged of them going missing after making face-to-face contact with strangers they met online.

 

State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, issued the caution to students at the National Missing Children’s Forum, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on May 25.

 

Mr. Green urged the children to be careful, “as social media profiles tell the world a lot about you”.

 

“Some of you are leaving profiles that you think will go away (but) they will follow you for your entire life. You have to take significant note of that,” he added.

 

The State Minister recalled an incident in which a child residing in Montego Bay, St. James, went missing and was found dead after leaving home to meet an individual she had met through social media.

 

Meanwhile, Director of Safety and Security in Schools, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Coleridge Minto, told JIS News that he continues to ramp up public education by speaking to students about the dangers of social media.

 

The Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has also assisted children in understanding the dangers of posting locations and other identifying information online.

 

“C-TOC has been going into the schools to ensure we promote the message of responsible use of social media, and we find that it is working to an extent, but we still have more work to do in terms of making our parents empowered to understand social media in a responsible way,” Mr. Minto said.

 

Aimed at bringing together a wide cross section of individuals to discuss the ongoing issue of missing and exploited children, the forum was held under the theme ‘Be the Change! Help us bring our children home’.

 

Held against the observance of International Missing Children’s Day, the forum was intended to strengthen the local legislative policy framework that governs missing children and to educate them on how to better protect themselves.

 

Meanwhile, data provided by the Ananda Alert Secretariat show continued decline in the number of children reported missing annually.

 

In 2017, a total of 1,674 children were reported missing, which shows a three per cent decline when compared to the corresponding period in 2016.

 

Of those children, a total of 1,476 were returned home, maintaining a nine out of 10 return or rate of recovery.

 

For her part, Chief Executive Officer of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Rosalee Gage-Grey, said that “one child lost is a missed opportunity in the furtherance of a prosperous Jamaica”.

 

She emphasised that the agency remains committed to reuniting families with their loved ones and will be continuing to explore ways to tackle violence against children.

 

This is to be done through an improved National Plan of Action for Violence against Children, which includes the roll-out of a public education campaign in coming months.

 

“We firmly believe that the conversation about violence against children must be on the agenda of every household across the island,” she said.

 

During the forum, four schools selected in the Ananda Alert Safe Schools Competition presented on tangible projects within their schools aimed at fostering a safer school community and building awareness around the Ananda Alert System.

 

The schools are Frome Technical High in Westmoreland, Greater Portmore High in St. Catherine, Glenmuir High in Clarendon and Westwood High in Trelawny.

 

CAPTION: State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green (left), and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), Rosalee Gage-Grey (right), discussing the programme for the National Missing Children’s Forum with Public Relations Officer of the CPFSA, Jeneva Gordon, at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on May 25.