The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training said on the weekend that end of term examinations will not be held for students in public schools this semester, a continuation of the policy that began last year.

Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin told The Tribune: “The (consensus) was arrived at by the ministry, the district superintendents, teachers’ representative bodies and the managers’ union. They were all in it and there was an absolute consensus. It was not a unilateral decision. It’s been a very disruptive period. A significant amount of children have not been online at all.

“They’re going to do assessments of primary and high school, particularly those who are graduating or going to university. There will be assessments, so there’s no loss of that. It’s just using an alternate mode of assessing performance. This is not a shortcut and this is not a deprivation, it is just a shift of strategy in the assessment.”

 Mrs Hanna Martin emphasised that the major impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had has been on students’ ability to learn.

 “We cannot walk around not having knowledge of what is happening,” she said. “This is a global phenomenon, that millions of children have been out of school. In this country, the numbers have been huge. We are in a crisis. We’ve had tremendous learning loss. For many thousands of children there has been two years lost.”

 Mrs Hanna Martin said officials are also in the process of putting together a testing protocol for all levels to “determine the learning loss of each particular child and thereafter to implement remediation strategies.”

 She said: “It might be very significant in some instances, not so significant in others. And then you know the question is whether we’re going to go for just core subjects in the beginning, literacy and numeracy. And then the other issue is the children who graduated and they ain’t been in school. We have to now identify each child through outreach with their parents and then see how we can get them into other programmes, training agencies, BTVI, adult learning extension so that we can ensure no child is left behind.”

 In a statement issued on Saturday, the ministry said that Friday will be the final day for students in public schools for the end of the Christmas term. National Report Card Day, originally scheduled for Thursday, December 16, has been postponed.

 The last working day for teachers for the Christmas term will be December 17, with dismissal at noon. Teachers will return to work on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

 “It is anticipated that students will be engaged in hybrid learning commencing Tuesday, January 11, 2022, subject to approval by the Ministry of Health and Wellness,” the ministry’s statement noted.

 “Further details related to the engagement of students in hybrid learning, the conduct of student assessment and new dates for the National Report Card Day will be provided at a later date.”