Dear Editor,
The Minister of Education spoke about putting programmes in place to deal with low literacy levels in our schools.
I have spoken time and again about the need for specialists to diagnose and deal with children who are dyslexic or have other learning disorders/disabilities that will still not be addressed by basic remedial teaching. Note that some of those who are labelled as “slow learners” have serious problems that are undiagnosed.
A literacy programme must also be put in place to deal with parents who are unable to assist their children, since the reality is that with 40 + children in a classroom, some, no many, will slip through the craters in the system. Home reinforcement is necessary.
What we need to do is to work with the Non-academic Standards in the schools. Further, we must work on perfecting those subjects that are traditionally taught in schools, and form the basis for specialist studies, rather than adding new ones, when we can barely cope with the four core subjects.
Yours faithfully,
Althea Daniels-Thornton
