Minister of Training, Expertise, Youth and Data, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, has emphasised that the implementation of a Literacy Programme, which targets college students in grades one to 3, might be one of many Ministry’s key priorities this educational 12 months.
The Minister made the declaration whereas visiting colleges throughout the island on the primary day of the 2025/26 faculty 12 months (Monday, September 1), to watch their operations.
Considered one of her first stops was the Fixed Spring Major and Toddler College in St. Andrew, the place orientation was underway for Grade 1 and different new college students.
Talking with JIS Information following a tour of the establishment, Dr. Morris Dixon famous that the Ministry is concentrated on rolling out the literacy programme throughout the nation’s main colleges.
She identified that Fixed Spring Major and Toddler already had a profitable studying programme, which noticed college students collaborating in studying lessons three days per week.
“Now that the Ministry has mandated it, they’re shifting to the 5 days, and I anticipate to see even higher issues from this faculty,” Senator Morris Dixon mentioned.
Literacy Coordinator on the St. Andrew-based establishment, Donna-Marie Phipps, advised JIS Information that the literacy programme on the faculty started two years in the past.
“We use the data from the IDRI (Casual Diagnostic Studying Stock), which is run initially of the varsity 12 months, to plan for our intervention programmes that we have now at our faculty. We now have pull-out programmes for struggling readers from grades two to 5. Myself and one other studying instructor see these college students for 2 hours…twice per week, one hour every session,” Ms. Phipps defined.
She famous that, basically, the varsity sees roughly 1 / 4 of its college students going through literacy challenges.
“For instance, of a set of consumption for college kids, every grade would have 80 plus college students. We could have 20 or 30 which can be studying beneath their grade degree,” the Literacy Coordinator famous.
She mentioned that these college students are focused for invention, based mostly on their particular person wants.
“We now have some college students which can be in essential want of literacy growth. We now have one-on-one [sessions] with these youngsters,” Ms. Phipps outlined.
If the intervention methods don’t result in fascinating outcomes, then additional intervention is sought, and the kid could also be referred to a particular wants’ establishment.
The Literacy Coordinator famous that normally, the interventions on the institutional degree result in optimistic outcomes and follow-up IDRI assessments present enchancment in college students’ studying.
Ms. Phipps welcomed the Minister’s announcement relating to the give attention to literacy for this educational 12 months, noting she is comfortable that the variety of studying periods might be elevated to 5 per week.
The literacy programme, whereas a key precedence of the Ministry, is one in all a number of areas of focus for the 2025/26 educational 12 months.
The Minister indicated that effort can even be positioned on ramping up intervention programmes in underperforming colleges.
“We’re going to be doing much more camps, particularly in Maths and English…having extra specialist lecturers all through the system,” Dr. Morris Dixon identified.
She famous that one other space of focus for the Ministry might be increasing services to accommodate college students with particular wants.
“At this faculty (Fixed Spring Major and Toddler) we’re going to be placing in a particular wants division. We’re within the strategy of working by that and it’s fairly superior. In order that’s one other factor that we’re very comfortable about,” Dr. Morris Dixon mentioned.
In the meantime, the Minister emphasised that the brand new educational 12 months has gotten off to a clean begin with colleges receiving the mandatory sources from the Ministry on schedule.
“In the previous few years, we’ve been in a position to give the faculties their sources a lot sooner than we used to. We used to have colleges complaining…they didn’t get this or that…or they didn’t get their allocations, however we’ve been in a position to handle that drawback. And we have now very responsive regional models throughout all seven areas, so any faculty that has any points, they know who to name,” Senator Morris Dixon added.
