Grade four literacy skills jump to 79 per cent
THE percentage of grade four students in public schools reading at a satisfactory level in the last academic year jumped to 79 per cent, according to special advisor to the education minister, Ruel Reid.
This is an improvement of 14 percentage points over the 63 per cent who mastered the Grade Four Literacy Test in 2006. The test is developed by the Ministry of Education and administered annually by the schools themselves.
According to the results published by the National Council on Education (NCE) last year, approximately 63 per cent of the students who did the test “attained mastery or possessed the requisite age-appropriate and developmental literacy skills”.
This means that only 21 per cent of grade four students last school year were “at risk of not being literate” on leaving primary school, compared to 37 per cent in 2005-2006.
Reid recalled that the report of the National Task Force on Education projected that Jamaica ought to achieve literacy levels of 85 per cent by 2015.
“This year, by focused intervention and co-ordinated leadership, the results show 79 per cent,” Reid said.
“The point I’m making is that, with will and effective leadership it can be done,” he said.
Reid, the principal of Jamaica College and a former president of the Jamaica Teachers Association, was honoured by the Rotary Club of St Andrew for his achievements in the field of education at a luncheon yesterday.
Chairman of the school board, R Danny Williams lauded Reid for his ongoing transformation of the all-boys institution. Williams, who recruited Reid shortly after becoming chairman less than two years ago, described the situation at JC on his arrival as “an absolute mess”.
“We had 30 per cent of our children roaming the compound, not attending class. We had 30 per cent of our teachers not attending classes regularly… We didn’t even have a computerised payroll system. Every roof was leaking… graffiti was all over the place. It was Bedlam,” he said.
Williams said the injection of money along with management from a strong principal was needed to turn schools around.
Reid, in the meanwhile, credited his training in human resource management and his setting of realistic goals for the turnaround at the school. He said contrary to what he had heard before arriving, there were only about 20 boys with serious disruptive behaviour at the school. The boys, he said, were placed in a special ‘institution’ for behaviour change and modification, with the best facilities, within the school. This was done so that everything could be done to change the students’ behaviour without expelling them.
Reid said he introduced a system in which students are not promoted to the next year if they do not perform satisfactorily.
“Already we have seen remarkable changes… The results by next year will be way up, back in the top 10. By 2012 JC will become number one,” he said, adding that teachers were not exempt from his disciplinary tactics.