Education Minister Octavia Alfred has said that reading is fundamental to students’ success at any exam.
She was addressing the presentation of the Grade Six National Assessment (G6NA) held at the Public Service Union (PSU) Building on Monday.
“This year’s results have again proven that reading is fundamental to students’ success at any exam,” she said. “Truth is, this is another thing that frightens me.”
Alfred continued, “I am almost at the point of saying, nobody reads.”
According to her, people do not read for pleasure like they did before.
“So this is not just a concern at school level, it could be something that’s not part of the household and it is passed on to our children,” Alfred stated. “So let us get back into the habit of reading.”
Furthermore, she pointed out that Ministry of Education data shows that students who are competent in reading after three years of primary school do much better at all assessments.
“I know from experience that if a child gets to eight years and they have not mastered some reading skills we need a special program for that child,” she remarked. “So let us start to ensure that we too as adults let children see us reading…
Alfred went on to state that special attention must be placed on children from the pre-K level, “and if we continue to be involved in their school life, they excel naturally.”
“We strongly believe that if the level of parental interest at these periods you have [is] the same interest all through the child’s school life…we are confident that we will witness a significant improvement in students’ performance.” She remarked.
Meanwhile, Alfred believes that the experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic, “taught us that we must always ensure that technology continues to play an essential role in students’ learning and assessment.”
She reassured the public that the Ministry of Education has taken steps to guarantee that technology remains at the heart of classroom instructions
“It was Covid, we do not know what’s next,” she remarked. “According to what happens next we do not want to go back to pre-Covid time,” she stated.
Therefore, Alfred encourages schools to continue to utilize the Google Classroom platform to engage students in classwork and to complete assignments at home.
A total of 79 students received scholarships and 98 received bursaries.
This year, 872 students, (404 girls and 467 boys), wrote the exams across 63 centers around the island.
Comment 4 continued.
In summary I say that Minister Ocvtavia Alfred is right. We are lucky that one of Skerrits bunch of ministers has the right attitude to learning. She may not look as glamorous as Tina Turner in her hey day, but boy, she is spot on about reading!
I have taken her advice unknowingly all these past 43 years while I was in England. I am hoping that in the GCE and GCSE results in August 2023, I will be vindicated, by my (now) 16 and 18 year olds. My 20 Year old- is now at University in his 2nd year doing film production.
As one rich bourgeois friend in Dominica told me, if everybody just did their jobs to the best of their abilities, then our society would be much better off. She should know because she owns properties in Roseau, and employs many manually skilled persons.
What society wants are manual workers who are reliable and efficient. Builders, Plumbers, Electricians, Market Gardeners, Clerks, Nurses, policemen, Teachers- all must excel at their…
Comment No 3.
Continuing my theme of marrying a rich mulatto girl. We have famous and rich families in Dominican society like: Astaphan, Nassief, Douglas, Shillingford, Role, Bully, Cools-Lartigue, Potter. Charles, Macintyre.etc.
Lennox Honeychurch can tell you about their histories. A poor fella like me – with the surname Mitchell- could not dream of marrying into such rich families. Their daughters want Bank managers, Doctors, Lawyers, Business men for their girl children. Earning >£100k.
The only hope we had was some sort of manual labour. We had no lands to cultivate crops. No hinterland of education and professions.
However with patience, discipline, thrift, luck, we somehow managed to get ACCA to our names and hence a” license to print money in England” literally. Suddenly you get noticed. “Gros Bourgeois” seek your advice. All the ladies of a certain income bracket seek your friendship.
But it all starts from Aunty Agatha’s education and Uncle Joffre’s stories…
Comment Number 2.
We in Dominica, particularly those of us from the Negro race ( I am Negro), must try to help ourselves instead of relying on the government to educate our children. The first educators according to the theories on Education are parents. Therefore if we have children, it is not enough to have provided the “sperm”. A father is responsible to see that his children get the life skills necessary to be able to support their own children. What ever skills a man has, he must pass this onto his children.
In Dominica we have carpenters, painters, agricultural workers, teachers, nurses, policemen, etc. If each of us pass on our skills to our children, then they can learn something useful. regardless of what skills you have. If they are done well and efficiently, then we as a nation are maximising our output collectively.
Your skills may not get you the rich mulatto girl that you pine for, but if well executed can bring you her respect. Respect is 50% of love.
Octavia Alfred is right. Our children need to learn to read. At my home, I encouraged reading, by personally reading bed time stories to my 3 children. I tried to make the stores interesting and regular. Therefore when they were 6, 4 and 2 respectively, (i.e. A gap exists of 2 years between each of my 3 children), by 7.00 pm we were all in one bedroom, and I was reading.
It reminded me of my childhood when older persons told stories at night, which kept us frightened. My Uncle Joffre Robinson was a good story teller, and we used to sit around his chair listening intently. Some of the neighbours children came to listen like Jerry Brisbane and his brothers Anthony and Brian. They were so frightened by the stories that we had to walk them home after story time. All this was pre 11 plus.
I would encourage all men with children to spend this little time in the evenings doing: homework, reading, spelling tests, simple comprehension, learning times tables. The results could be…
Politicians and their comments, wow, students are reading, they have that gadget in their hands 24/7, they are reading more than ever before, but the question is what are they reading, and who controls what they read. Why should Minister, Alfred, encourages schools to continue to utilize the Google Classroom platform, yes there may be benefits to it but overall the greatest beneficiary of such platform is Goggle, why are we deceiving ourselves and leading our future leaders down a rabbit hole of automations without critical thinking, stretching the mind, do we really think that Google platform is interested in Children education. What is wrong with The Ministry, can they not develop their own comprehensive program, show some creativity and innovation to address the problem.
Roger Burnett is saying Dominicans do not read because there is no public library.The guy agree people should not read untill government build a public library.
Comprehension is an essential component of reading. Please re-read my comment carefully in order to comprehend what I wrote.
@Roger Burnett
Even if he re-reads it, he will not understand.
@Lin clown
You have no understanding, because your reading, writing, understanding, vocabulary, punctuation, GRAMMAR is that of a FIRST grader…You are so shameless!!!
This grossly incompetent lady has offered no real solutions for the reading problems in schools. She complains bitterly but seems completely clueless as what to do.
I humbly offer a few suggestions:
*The public library needs to be restored and upgraded into a modern facility.
*Every school should have a library and library sessions should be time-tabled.
*Have reading competitions within and among the schools.
* Organise debates within and among the schools. This will force students to do research (read).
* Organise a library on wheels where a van loaded with books goes to the various communities. Children along with their parents can borrow books.
*Organise events such as reading buffet, reading day (only reading events for that particular day), , reading week (great emphasis on reading for that particular week).
Minister, stop the complaining and offer practical solutions. Your actions are so loud I can’t hear you when you speak.
I think I’ll donate children’s books to a library or school in Dominica. Books about Scottish and Greek mythology, Frozen and Disney Princess books, National Geographic Kids books, etc.
May I remind the Minister that many of us lament the lack of progress on restoring the Roseau Public Library.
The library service however is there and available for those who want to use it.