The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SCHOOL attendance monitors tasked with getting drop-outs back in school recently found a 12-year-old boy living alone in a car.

Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin said the child is now in the state’s custody.

She declined to offer further details, but said in the House of Assembly: “These are the issues that we face. Now, we can ignore it and turn the next way, but that will come back to haunt us and further hurt us anyhow because a child should not fall by the wayside.

 “The one person protected in this life should be the children of this nation.”

 She said efforts to re-engage absent students have been “very effective” despite challenges.

 She said school attendance rates have risen to 95 per cent for September, adding that people are on the ground every day looking for students.

 “So we prioritise getting students off the streets and into the classrooms,” she said.

 She also noted improvements in students’ academic performance after intervention initiatives were implemented to deal with learning loss suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 A recent survey found that 44 per cent of public school students require urgent learning intervention.

 “After the third testing, we have found that preliminary results revealed that 60 per cent of the students have shown academic growth,” she said. “Forty per cent accelerated and 20 per cent typical. Fourth graders have shown the greatest accelerated process with 62 per cent growth in reading.”

 “However, the main number of 44 per cent has only been reduced by four per cent, so we still have a target area of 40 per cent that we have to continue to work with, but we are seeing progress and we’re seeing the students who were at grade level as a result of our efforts are now above grade level.”

 “Forty per cent are above grade level now and 20 per cent are now at grade level.”

 She said strategies to deal with learning loss include individualised learning, a targeted focus on certain subjects each term, after-school programmes and the assistance of non-governmental agencies.

 “We want to take education to the next level,” Mrs Hanna Martin said.