Intervention in Math and English to be strengthened

The Ministry of Education has indicated that it will be strengthening interventions in Mathematics and English A in order to ensure sustained improvements in students’ scores at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) level.

The math strategies, which have yielded improved passes this year, will be sustained, with additional support provided where needed.

As it relates to English Language, focus will be placed on building the capacity of teachers to address areas of weaknesses in the subject, which saw a 1.4 per cent decline in passes this year over the 2014 results.

National Numeracy Coordinator, Dr. Tamika Benjamin, said the math strategies, which have been implemented over the past three years, include increasing the cadre of Mathematics coaches that have been supporting the system.

Last year, 86 secondary schools were supported by full-time coaches and part-time Mathematics resource teachers.

Dr. Benjamin said the Ministry will also continue to provide opportunities for teachers, who need additional training and professional development outside the classroom.

She was responding to queries from the media during a press conference to announce the results of the 2015 sitting of the CSEC on Thursday (Aug. 13), at the Ministry’s head office in Kingston.

It was announced that of the 23,639 Grade 11 students, who sat the Mathematics examination in May, 14,657 or 62 per cent earned passes of grades one to three.

This is a 6.5 per cent increase over last year’s 55.5 per cent pass rate and 20 percentage points above the 2013 results.

Dr. Benjamin indicated that over the last year, the Ministry, working at the regional level analysed reports to identify areas in which students were under-performing.

“We identified the areas which we recognise were either not being taught consistently or not being taught well enough and we used members of the Math teams; specialists and coordinators, as well as teachers we knew who had a good track record… and focused on those particular areas,” she said.

She informed that students were then engaged in camps during the Christmas and Easter breaks to address the weak areas.

Dr. Benjamin said in examining the preliminary CSEC results, it was noted that at least one critical area has been addressed due to this intervention. She noted that additional support is needed for other areas.

“We have mainly been targeting the teachers, but also (we are) finding ways to reach the students when we recognise that in some areas, there isn’t the level of support the student would need,” Dr. Benjamin said.

As it relates to English Language, National Literacy Coordinator, Dr. Andre Hill, indicated that his team will be building the capacity of teachers to efficiently deliver lessons.

“Primarily, we identify poor performing schools, we analyse the annual results from the national and regional exams and we try our best to direct the existing human resource support to these low performing schools in the region,” he said.

He noted that the unit has been working closely with the schools’ administration and encouraging principals to identify existing strengths among teachers and direct resources accordingly.

“In the work that we have been doing with the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), we have developed a lot of resources that professional teachers can access and continue to build in the areas that they have deficits,” Dr. Hill said.

Sixty-five per cent of public school candidates, who sat the English A examination received a passing grade.