Education Minister, Octavia Alfred, says the results of the Grade Six National Assessment (G6NA) indicate that reading is fundamental to students’ success at that exam.
According to the minister who spoke during the presentation of the 2021 G6NA results on Monday, students who are competent at reading after 3 years of primary school, do better in the G6NA.
She said when reading levels are low after 3 years of primary school education, performance is negatively impacted.
“We must therefore, recommit not only to raising levels of reading in the classroom, but more so to engender an early love for reading in the home,” Alfred stated.
The former secondary school principal encouraged parents and guardians to do their part to prepare students for long-term academic success.
“Help grow a love for reading among our children by exposing them to books, by reading to them and by encouraging them to choose a book over the television or other forms of entertainment,” Alfred advised.
Alfred said in moving forward, her ministry will continue to undertake reviews, targeting schools where performance levels are significantly low.
“These reviews, we hope, will assist us in determining the possible reason for underperformance as well as to devise solutions,” she said.
She said further that learning support officers, district education officers, curriculum officers and other support staff within the Ministry of Education will continue to make supervisory visits to monitor students performance as well as provide assistance in instruction for improved teaching and learning.
Meanwhile, Alfred revealed that her Ministry recently commissioned a working group comprising teachers, principals and staff from the Ministry of Education with the sole focus of studying the issue with the hope of arriving at practical recommendations for addressing this challenge.
She said the group has had a number of meetings with various stakeholders including students.
“The working group is currently at the data gathering stage where information is being collected from teachers, school principals, students, parents, community members and industry stakeholders among others,” she revealed.
Alfred went on to say that work on this initiative will continue into the next school year and hope to engage the public soon on ways her ministry can create more learning opportunities that resonate with boys and help to improve their achievement levels.
“This intervention program is necessary because we need to identify the challenges that our boys face and provide high quality teaching to address their difficulties and give effective support at the ministry level as early as possible in areas of curriculum, assessment, leadership and management,” the minister concluded.
Pampalam, are the skies around More Daniel clear of drones now?
Being able to read is not about repeating letters of the alphabet like a parrot but to know what they mean. Also to know what other words are similar in meaning. The education minister can’t read and one wonders how the hell she could have been a teacher to begin with. She became tougue tied and couldn’t come up with a similar word to express the gist and sentiment of what it is she was presenting. What a sad day and a shame. She should also learn the meaning of vernacular. Parrots can always repeat what they hear, so it’s easy for her to repeat that reading is critical for children’s education but it starts with her.
This woman is utterly clueless. But thanks for stating the obvious.
It is very obvious, but thanks for reiterating that fact. A lie was not told here. I think her approach is like how Byron approached the survey though. Working group/task force to encourage children to read.
Pronunciation is also fundamental. Two people who should be gotten rid of in the education system are you and a teacher from the north they call Melo. Cannot understand how you two became educators .
Education as we know it is a scam. Outside of basic maths, the information taught in school is useless. University is one of the biggest scams on the planet… how many Dominicans studied and are now in D A with no job to show for it? In the US/UK, people are literally crippled with student debt that they will never be able to pay back – most will never get a job that reflects their studies.
We have to re-think our approach to education and stop setting up our children for failure. A I means there are less and less jobs so we need to stop saying ‘study hard and get a good job’.
Start teaching our kids how to build businesses, how finance works, investment, grow your own food etc. Teach them realistic ways to provide. We have enough Dominicans walking around complaining because they studied and can’t get work, we don’t need any more!
The entire education system needs revamping. There is too much rote learning. Children should be engaged in more critical thinking exercises.
Reading, as stated by the Minister of Education, is of utmost importance . A student should be reading at his/her level from grade 2.
We should adopt a holistic approach to education. Emphasis should not be exclusively on academics. Skills, talents, civics and good behavior should be an integral part of the curricula.
I firmly believe that no student should exit secondary education without a skill. Every student should be encouraged (teaching of civics) into becoming law abiding, productive citizens.
The emphasis is too much on academic achievement at the expense of all the other aforementioned areas. This is the main reason for a growing number of school ‘drop outs’ and educated derelict.s
Oh yes reading is important, reasons why i just can’t understand why Skerrit, the liar in chief, has our former Public Library in this condition.
Additionally, any minister of government who reads, should quickly know that he/she sits on his bottom or buttocks, since PAMPALAM has not found its way into our english dictionary yet!!!