Georgetown: “There is an overriding recognition now that our students in our schools, every single one of them, have to be at the forefront of all of our initiatives and at a greater level than they have ever been.” This is the conviction of Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam, who recently told educators that the Ministry of education is at the point where quite a bit has been done to address a number of the policy related issues, including restructuring in various areas that hadn’t been ever considered from a policy procedural perspective.
According to Sam, the Ministry has in fact spent a few years aiming to get this process right, revealing that “last time I checked, I think there were about fifteen policy areas that we would have addressed and streamlined over the last three years. That having been done, it is important for us to take the next step and get into the implementation dimension; get into the classrooms and speak with our teachers, parents and students and ensure that at the end of the day, every single student has a greater chance for academic success…” Sam said.
Alluding to additional work on the part of the Ministry to foster academic success and by extension development of the education sector, Sam pointed to the importance of showing that everything done in the sector reflects the need for a change in a significant way.
Sam’s disclosures were made even as he sought to amplify the newly introduced initiative by recently appointed Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, which according to him, is centered around the improved performance of students at the secondary level. He pointed to the fact that while last year saw the Ministry moving to have education professionals seeking to recommit to help bolster performance at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination, “this year we are taking it to another level. We are taking a giant leap forward in relation to this particular initiative…” The new initiative saw a number of schools being selected to participate in a pilot project which is geared at realizing improved results at the upcoming CSEC Examination, particularly in the areas of Mathematics and English.
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