Discovery Bay IT teacher wants expansion of curriculum
Published:Saturday | January 27, 2024 | 12:08 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Rovel Chambers, head of the Information Communication and Technology Department at Discovery High School in St Ann, wants the information technology (IT) curriculum for secondary schools to be officially updated to include segments for coding computer applications which he says is fundamental to the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
Speaking with The Gleaner during day two of the Forum for Innovations in Teaching, coordinated by the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) at the National Arena yesterday, the educator said Jamaican students are at a disadvantage globally as they are introduced to this aspect of IT too late in their courses of study.
“Coding right now in the high school system overseas is at the level where they’re creating applications. However, in Jamaica we’re coding at the tertiary level to create applications, so we’re behind,” he said.
Labelling the high school IT curriculum as “outdated”, Chambers suggested that the lack of progress is due in part to the fact that Jamaica is part of a regional examination council and, as such, adjustments are restricted.
“We should adapt and try to move with the times. The sooner [we do] it, the better for us the future will be because they’ll (students) be more exposed and so, in some ways, they’ll be more imaginative from that tender age so that they can be so creative in the latter aspect,” he said.
Chambers noted that the IT curriculums at Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination levels introduce students to basic coding, but insisted that at this stage students should be creating applications.
“They’re going to Google, they’re going to go on ChatGPT, they’re going to go on TikTok and see these things happening. It only makes sense that we try to facilitate as best as possible.”
About a year ago, his institution started hosting virtual coding lessons on the weekends for students who expressed an interest.
Coding in Schools programme
Chambers said these students were introduced to this area of IT after the Ministry of Education and Youth piloted the Coding in Schools programme in 2021. It involved a partnership with Amber Innovations Group Limited, and promoted the teaching and learning of coding in public educational institutions across Jamaica.
Twenty schools, including Discovery Bay High, which is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM) academy, participated in the pilot which involved approximately 2,000 students in grades four and nine.
Efforts by The Gleaner to get an update from the education ministry on the progress of the pilot were unsuccessful up to press time.
In the meantime, Chambers said these virtual coding classes that the school facilitated were a means of “sustaining the interest of the students”, and lauded the success of the programme.
He said 15 students actively participate in the sessions and so far they have created three programs; a calculator program, a banking program and a shopping program.
“For the shopping program, what they have done is devised a way to store a shopping list with the pricing as well, typically like any point-of-sale system, that is the basis of it,” he explained.
“The banking program, it is really similar to an ATM (automated teller machine). It is what the ATM does now. Once you enter your bank card, it searches for your account information, they ask you to enter account number which then grants you access to the system, either add or withdraw money from your account,” Chambers continued.
Confident of the value of the initiative, he said the school, which was established in 2019, is working to ensure it is sustainable.
“There are some that are more advanced than some in terms of their development while some maintain this basic level of interest, but I find that allowing them to explore and be a part of these classes, you find that there is no bounds to their education when it comes on to IT, and they’re seeing what is out there,” he said.
However, Professor Marvin Reid, deputy dean in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, who was a panellist at the event where he spoke on repositioning tertiary education in the digital space, noted that the education system is an ecosystem that facilitates different kinds of learning at different stages.
“It’s an ecosystem. It starts from the baby stage going to kindergarten school all the way up. AI is now just going to be a simple tool, just like how books used to be where you have to train them. So, at their level you will train them as to how to use AI,” he said.