The Ministry of Education is taking steps to institutionalize continuous remediation programmes both at the primary and secondary levels during the school year.
Minister of Education Shaik Baksh made this announcement at the recent launch of a series of continuous professional development courses for teachers at the National Centre for Educa-tional Resource Develop-ment. According to a press release the minister said these courses are designed to turn around students’ poor performance in Mathematics and English.
Baksh also said his ministry is seeking the Guyana Teachers’ Union’s support on this venture which he hopes will be of great assistance in boosting the outcomes of weak students. He also reiterated a previous request that teachers spend at least one hour of their time after school working with underperforming students from their class.
At the primary level the ministry has restructured and intensified several remediation programmes to ensure that students who leave that level are able to master basic literacy and numeracy concepts. Some of the programmes currently being offered include the post grade two, four and six remediation classes and performance enhancing projects. These initiatives target students who obtained below 50 per cent in English and Mathematics. In addition to boosting their performance in these two areas it also aims to facilitate their smooth transition to secondary school.
Earlier this year the minister had informed the National Assembly that repetition had been discontinued at the secondary level and focus had been placed on remediation. In keeping with this thrust the ministry has initiated an upgrading programme targeting Grade Seven and Eight students who performed poorly in the two core subject areas, during the July/August vacation.
The national remedial programme which has been extended to two more weeks also seeks to provide supplementary tuition to children who gained less than 50% at the 2009/2010 annual end-of-year examination with a view to raising them to the required level in the areas of literacy and numeracy in the coming academic year. Some 13,500 are enrolled in the one-month programme which is being delivered by 800 teachers. The teachers have been trained to impart the programme in a “fun-filled” manner.
Students in selected schools nationwide had been targeted. The classes are small to ensure that they receive a high level of individual attention.
