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Published: Wednesday | April 29, 2009
The Ministry of Education, in a drive to have 100 per cent literacy and numeracy at the primary level, is to spend close to half a billion dollars on literacy and numeracy specialists this financial year.
This is more than a doubling of the allocation on literacy and numeracy specialists.
In the last financial year, close to $200 million was allocated to the programme. This year, almost $500 million has been allotted.
The ministry is expanding its corps of literacy specialists from 50 to 90 and the number of numeracy specialists from 56 to 70.
The specialists are to be sent to schools that are most in need. They will teach methodologies to teachers and move on when the teachers achieve sufficient aptitude.
The expansion in the number of numeracy and literacy specialists fits into the education ministry's decision to make literacy and numeracy its priority areas this financial year.
Expansion
The expansion also comes amid public concern emanating from recent statements in the media about the quality of mathematics teachers in the public-school system. The ministry said it shared the concerns and were seeking to assure the public that several measures are being implemented to address this matter.
In November last year, the ministry, through the Education Transformation Team, commissioned an independent study to determine the quality, qualification and attitudes of Jamaican mathematics teachers at the primary and secondary level. Among other things, the researcher concluded that 30 per cent of the teachers sampled did not pass mathematics at the secondary level.
This translates to 38 per cent of primary teachers and seven per cent of secondary teachers of mathematics being without a pass in the subject at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level. However, the ministry has dismissed claims in the media that 30 per cent of mathematics teachers at the secondary level have not passed the subject.
Data-gathering process
Among the measures undertaken by the ministry is the development of a National Mathematics Strategy, which was launched last June under the Education Transformation programme. The development of the strategy was informed by a data-gathering process which highlighted poor student performance, particularly at the primary level.
The issue of teacher quality was also identified as a matter which needed attention. The strategy targets teachers and students by providing intervention for poor-performing students, facilitating opportunities for able and gifted students to be challenged, and by investigating the gender-achievement gap which exists. In addition, the strategy seeks to influence changes in the curriculum of the country's teacher-training colleges. The National Mathematics Strategy also provides for an increase in ongoing in-service training for teachers and teacher trainers. Since the launch of the strategy in June 2008, more than 2,300 primary and 300 secondary teachers have been trained at workshops.
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