Education ministry to eliminate literacy issues in three to four years

Education Minister, Senator Dana Morris Dixon, stated that the Government is executing multiple strategies to address literacy issues within the school system.

Speaking at this morning's post cabinet press briefing she reiterated that timetabled reading sessions will be reintroduced into the primary school curriculum starting this September.

"It had been taken off the timetable some time ago, and we are putting it back on the timetable, because we cannot afford for our children to leave primary school not literate," she stated.

Her statement comes after a Gleaner article yesterday revealed that more than 70 per cent of the roughly 220 grade-seven students at Pembroke Hall High School in Kingston are unable to read or do so only at a grade-three level.

The school's principal, Reverend Claude Ellis also revealed that some of these students, who are suspected of having special education needs, struggle to recognise letters of the alphabet.

Acknowledging that there are other high schools with similar issues, Morris Dixon told journalists that gaps in the primary-level diagnostic testing must be addressed before students transition to the next stage of their education.

In April, she stated that these reading sessions would be at least two hours, targeting students in grades one to three.

The Minister also shared that some primary schools have been proactive in addressing literacy issues of their students after seeing the results of the diagnostic tests.

"They'll tell you that they have been working with the Ministry, they've been putting in intervention programmes and they are seeing success," she said.

She added; "What that means to me, is that it can be done, and with the right leadership and with them taking the tools we have in the Ministry, we can definitely within another three or four years, we can eliminate this problem."

She said the Ministry of Education has taken a tactical approach to address literacy concerns in high schools, which includes deploying reading specialists.

And that the Ministry will also provide nutritional support for 189 primary and 56 secondary schools, identified as under performing in the upcoming fiscal year.

"Because we realise also that for those schools where we're having the challenges, the students tend to come from challenging circumstances, and so we have to be intervening on multiple fonts in order to address it," she said.

In the meantime, she said the Ministry is aware of the challenges in diagnosing learning disabilities, noting that many under performing students may be struggling with undiagnosed conditions.

She said a new facility will be opened later this year so that more parents can access diagnosis, scholarships will be provided to people who wish to pursue studies in the area, as well as fostering greater partnerships with tertiary institutions to provide professional to perform diagnostic tests, and also to work with the children when they are diagnosed.

"We're putting our money there, we're putting in scholarships so that we can address that," she said.

-Sashana Small

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