Some teachers threaten pull-out from remedial summer school programme

EVEN AS some teachers have vowed to withdraw from the project, the Ministry of Education and Youth (MOEY) has targeted nearly 4,000 students who failed the 2022 literacy and numeracy performance tasks examination in a revived national summer school programme, which will be held for three weeks in July.

Dissenting teachers are displeased as they are yet to be paid for those services nearly one year later.

The programme, which will now be known as the National Summer Academy, is preparation for students who will transition to grade six in the 2023-2024 academic year and will sit the primary school-leaving examination under the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

Those targeted students, according to coordinator Dr Andre Hill, are the ones who are reading three or more grade levels below their class grade and who would have been getting ready to leave grade two when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. The students spent two years out of the physical classroom, and upon their return in 2022, would have been faced with the performance examinations.

Hill, in an interview with The Gleaner yesterday, said not all students would be targeted.

“Unlike the previous two years, we are not targeting all students, meaning the students across all the grade levels. We are particularly targeting those who would have failed the 2022 sitting of the grade four sitting of the literacy and numeracy test. These students would have spent one year since in grade five,” Hill told The Gleaner.

Years out of school

According to him, 2,500 will be targeted for the literacy exercise and just under 1,800 for the numeracy component. The numeracy is the mathematical component of the programme, and literacy is the reading and writing component.

“More students failed the literacy tests last year than the numeracy tests. It’s the first that is happening in the history of the ministry. But these students in question would have spent the last two to 2.5 years out of school learning virtually because of the pandemic,” he said.

The most formative years of the children were outside the formal setting of school and more boys than girls failed the literacy test.

He explained that there were two categories of children who failed the literacy tests.

“We have three levels of designation: mastery, which is passing both components; almost mastery - passing one component; and then there is non-mastery, which means the student would have failed all components. The almost mastery category is a larger number than the non-mastery category, and that number is about 12,000. However, because they are not as disadvantaged as those in the non-mastery category, they will be accessing the online resources, while the non-mastery category is for the face-to-face or pop-up session, as they are referenced,” he explained.

Meanwhile, some teachers who worked in the programme last year will not return. In some instances, teachers who participated in the first iteration of the programme have also not been paid.

“We have just written it off as bad debt, and the ministry will have to use people from Heroes’ Circle (ministry headquarters). None of the teachers that we know of who worked last year who have not been paid are planning to work this year. In fact, even those who have been paid said they are not volunteering,” said spokesman for a group of teachers who have not been paid.

According to him: “We had to do so much work. Not that we were complaining, but the MOEY wanted to know if we were actually there because they don’t trust us. We had to upload stuff at the end of the day. The pay was about $1,800 (per day) and it was taxable, and the total was about $30,000. And all now.”

The Gleaner can confirm that teachers from one Kingston school were paid in June.

Questions sent to Acting Permanent Secretary in the MOEY, Maureen Dwyer, did not receive a promised response.

Hill acknowledged concerns from teachers, telling The Gleaner that the MOEY was trying to identify problems that have allowed sums to be outstanding. The MOEY, he said, was applying a fine-tooth comb to the process, using the TRN of individuals to validate payments that have been made versus claims that they have not received any payment.

The targeted grade-five students will have access to a suite of learning resources (e-resources, printed and electronic learning kits, and videos). In addition, the grade-five students who attained non–mastery will also have an opportunity for engagement. The sessions will take place across the island between Monday, July 10, and Thursday, July 20. Parents are being encouraged to register their children for the sessions.

Meanwhile, targeted grade-six students are also scheduled to be assessed by educational psychologists engaged by the MOEY.

The ministry said it was committed to providing technical support - through regional mathematics and literacy coordinators - to principals, student support pathway coaches, and teachers of these student-receiving schools to review the detailed reports generated from their sitting of the grade six Primary Exit Profile examinations.

The support offered through the National Summer Academy will be at no cost to parents. The programme will be delivered by the ministry’s team of technical officers to include numeracy and literacy coaches/specialists, among others.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com