Great strides being made

Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones says phenomenal things are happening in primary and secondary schools across this island.

 

In a wide-ranging speech to the Democratic Labour Party’s St. George South Branch on Sunday evening, the Minister referring to the results of the Common Entrance Examination over the past eight years revealed that they have been making significant headway with respect to improving English scores and sustaining that progress.

 

“When I went into the Ministry I had this vision, this view that I want to see better students coming from our primary schools. I don’t want to see 32 per cent of our students scoring less than 30 in the Common Entrance Exam, or the Barbados Secondary School Entrance Exam. I changed the 30 to 40, because I believe 40 is considered a passing grade, 40 and up. Today, less than ten per cent of our students score less than 40 in the English Paper in the Barbados Secondary School Entrance Exam,” he said.

 

He explained that this has been the trend in almost every single year since 2008. Jones’ comments came as he indicated that the Maths scores still continue to be a bit challenging. However, he said, they are not giving up on seeing significant improvements made in that vein as well.

 

“We’ve brought the university on board; we’re looking for some reequipping of teachers including the insertion of some specialists Maths and Science teachers in our primary schools. I’ve looked at the work done and I’ve signed off on it; hopefully we will be able to get specialists… I want to see an upward trajectory and that is why we are reorienting change in the system,” he said.

 

His comments came as he spoke to this year’s Common Entrance Examination. He said reports indicate that section three of the Mathematics paper was “a bit challenging” and certain questions “truly tested” some of the pupils. With that in mind, he said they suspect that this will be reflected in this year’s results, which should be out next month.

 

Turning his attention to the secondary schools, Jones indicated that they have been seeing improvement at that level as well, with students achieving certification regardless of the schools they attend.

“Even within what I call the third grouping of students, I have students who are doing what we call four subjects at one sitting with grade ones or getting back four subjects at a certain percentage at one sitting; every single school in this country, every one,” he said.

 

The Education Minister added, “We have worked out in the Ministry a process, it is called a report card which can look at children going in from the 11 Plus with a certain grade quality and look five years down… to tell you if in fact there is substantial value added to that child after five or six years. That was developed inside the Ministry and all of the secondary schools have it.”

 

Jones told the gathering that steps will soon be taken to develop a similar report card for the primary school. It will focus, he said, on using the Criterion Referenced Test at the base point. (JRT)