• Category

  • Content Type

Advertisement

Gov’t Moves to Improve School Management and Track Student Performance

April 9, 2010

The Full Story

The Ministry of Education is moving to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness in school management and to better track the performance of students.
Portfolio Minister, Hon. Andrew Holness, addressing the opening of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Education Conference in Ocho Rios on Tuesday (April 6), informed that a school management system is being developed for schools, while national student registration will be introduced at the primary level.
He said that the software, called Jamaica Schools Administration Software (JSAS), which will be released soon, “will be of significant help to you (principals) in managing your schools.”
“It will record everything that happens in the schools,” he noted.
JSAS will assist principals and other school administrators to efficiently complete required administrative and diagnostic tasks. The software stores data at the school, class and student levels and provides fast and easy retrieval of student and teacher information as well as generating student reports and transcripts.

Education Minister, Hon. Andrew Holness, addresses the opening of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Education Conference on Tuesday (April 6) at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios. The conference was held under the theme: ‘Promoting a Culture of Consultation, Cooperation and Accountability in Schools.’

Additionally, nearly all the required reports for the Ministry of Education are accommodated, enabling schools to produce accurate, reliable reports while benefiting from organised safe electronic storage and record-keeping. JSAS is a useful tool for teachers, school administrators and stakeholders including the Ministry of Education.
In the meantime, the introduction of national registration at the primary level will standardise the registration process and better monitor student behaviour and performance.
Minister Holness explained that students will go through a one-time registration when they enter school at grade one, where they will be assigned a unique identification number, which they will keep throughout their primary school life.
Schools will be given a standard registration form and a standards document, which sets out how the process of registration should be conducted.
According to Minister Holness, the identification number will be used to track the student right through the primary school system. “Everything the student does will be recorded and (stored in a database) so what we have now created is a behaviour management tool in terms of what we would want to call a permanent record,” he explained.
He reasoned that such as system has the potential to positively impact performance as students will be aware that their present behaviour will have an impact on their future prospects.
He is encouraging the teachers and principals to continue to work with the Ministry and play their part to achieve the best outcome for the education system.

Last Updated: August 16, 2013

Skip to content