EFFORTS by the Ministry of Education to eradicate illiteracy among students by the time they reach grade four appear to be reaping dividends, with education officials reporting success ahead of government's Task Force on Educational Reform (2004) schedule.

The task force report had set a target of 85 per cent of students at the primary level operating at 85 per cent mastery of literacy and numeracy by the year 2015. But Dr Jean Beaumont, project director for the Expanding Educational Horizons (EEH) project being implemented by the ministry, said the success of that programme and its forerunner - the New Horizons for Primary Schools (NHP) project, have ensured the targets are being met and even surpassed in some instances.

"We're already beginning to look up. The ministry of education, through the task force report, has set a target of having 85 per cent of our students operating at 85 per cent mastery across the board. Our schools (in the EEH programme) are already in the 70s and that's a target for 2015 and so we're using that as a measure," she said. "Our schools are coming from the bottom and so they've made huge leaps to get to that stage. Some schools are in the 100s, but on average we're late 60s to 70s. We're proud of our achievement thus far."

Under the NHP, which ran for seven years, schools identified as performing "way below 30 per cent" became targets for the ministry's new initiative - the EEH, which started two and a half years ago.

The EEH is targeting 71 poor-performing primary and all-age schools and six NGOs throughout Jamaica, and seeks to benefit approximately 30,000 students and 3,000 out-of-school youths.
It is a pilot project that, apart

from addressing poor student performance, will seek to inform the MOE of the most effective strategies to improve performance standards in literacy and numeracy.
Workshop from Page 1

During the first year, needs assessment surveys and schools and classroom observations were carried out, followed by training on major stakeholders in the education sector - principals, teachers, board members and parents.

The literacy component focuses on reading fluency, teaching of comprehension and teaching of writing, in the two aspects - idea generating and penmanship. The numeracy component consists of child-centred approaches that run counter to the traditional 'chalk and talk' method.

And as those efforts continue, the ministry recently staged a workshop at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios to upgrade teachers on the use of new technologies that may be used in the implementation of the EEH project.

Nearly 400 teachers from schools involved in the project were given hands-on experience of software that would help students grasp their lessons more quickly. One particular piece of software captures students' data, tracks students' progress, generates end-of-term reports and transcripts, and allows teachers and principals to use it to see students' performance standards in any of the areas that are being monitored.

In another area, teachers were being trained to use the Alpha Smart Neo, a battery-operated computer device on which children can write stories, with each Neo being able to accommodate eight students at a time. Andrea Pinnock, one of educational technology specialists on the project, noted that teachers were embracing the concept.

Meanwhile, a Mathematics software elicited excited responses from the teachers being trained in its use.

"The new Math software is very interactive, it's very, very good, you have to see it to know what I'm talking about," said Julius Davis, a teacher from Newton Primary in St Elizabeth.

Milton Blackwood, of Rio Bueno primary in Trelawny, who viewed the topic probability, said the software eliminated time-wasting. His overall assessment was "very good".

"We want to ensure that when the programme comes to an end we have a cadre of teachers in technology, in Math, in numeracy, in gender who can continue to provide training," he said.

Meanwhile, as the EEH progresses, it will also draw from best practices of another successful USAID-funded education project, the Caribbean Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training (CCETT).

The success of the EEH is said to be based on
the collaborative support of the USAID, which was also involved in the NHP, the ministry of education, the project team and the institutions in focus.

"Once you hit that grade four target, GSAT and all subsequent exams will take care of themselves," said Beaumont.

Source: jamaicaobserver.com