Education crisis... Ministry assessment shows worrying learning loss

A major crisis in education is looming, parliamentarians warned Thursday as it was revealed that significant learning loss is happening among students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Based on diagnostic assessments conducted by the ministry, at the grade six level, the mean scores were worrying.

Mean Scores - Grade Six:

Mathematics - 23
Language Arts - 30
Social Studies - 31
Science - 24 

Mean Scores - Grade Five:

Mathematics - 25
Language Arts - 33
Social Studies - 31
Science - 28

Since March, there have been no face to face classes, except for 17 schools under a pilot programme for phased classroom learning in the past month.

The majority of the other schools have been seeking to do online classes.

"We have concluded that the learning loss has been significant and therefore we have started our intervention plans to commence in December," McLean told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament. 

Last year only 50 per cent of students met the standards required to advance in the Primary Exit Profile.

McLean said before the pandemic, there had been interventions to help students who were already struggling.

However, this seems to have done very little to improve results.

Committee member Lisa Hanna expressed alarm over the numbers, pressing the McLean to say what plans are being implement now that the education system is being battered by COVID-19.

"If from 2015, you have implemented these programmes and in 2019, you are saying that still 50 per cent of the student who did PEP just qualified satisfactorily and this is pre-COVID, you don’t see a red flag?” Hanna questioned. 

"Yes it is a double whammy, we have the learning loss before, we have the learning loss now, but the important thing is that we have the data and we are committed to working with the team," McLean responded. 

Fitz Jackson, the St Catherine South member of parliament was concerned that a majority of the students, even those with tablet devices were not engaged in any learning. 

"You going to have a school term, that is in great part, a school term on paper but not a school term where students are actively engaged. That for me is where the crisis is,” Jackson lamented.  

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