Education ministry aims for 80% mastery among PEP summer programme students

Jamaica’s Ministry of Education expects no fewer than 80 per cent of the 1,341 pupils enrolled in its special summer literacy and numeracy intervention — aimed at those who missed mastery on the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) — to clear that bar before they begin high school in September.

When PEP scores came out in June, the ministry said 31,677 candidates sat the assessment. Seventy-five per cent reached mastery in numeracy and 79 per cent did so in literacy. Portfolio minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon then said the ministry would pursue learners at near-mastery and non-mastery levels so no child is left behind.

On Tuesday, permanent secretary Dr Kasan Troupe told the Jamaica Observer that those learners are now in an intensive, three-week, Government-paid summer course running through the end of July. The drive concentrates on weak spots and will retest competence when it ends.

“Right now, as indicated by our minister, the plan is for us to have a majority of our students, if not all, go to high school literate. As you know, we have been working on that as an education system,” Troupe said at a CIBC Caribbean prepaid-card handover to nine principals whose schools were hit by Hurricane Melissa last October, held at the bank’s New Kingston corporate office.

“We saw a 10 per cent improvement in the level of mastery for literacy this year. The same students who we assessed this year, when they got their mastery scores in grade four it was 69 per cent, and this year it is 79 per cent, and we identified some students who are on the cusp. If it was a little bit more we would have got them there. So, the thrust now is to run them through an intensive literacy and numeracy initiative,” she said.

Troupe said week one was spent assessing where each child stood on the path to numeracy and literacy. Those results shaped individual learning plans for the remaining two weeks. She conceded that chasing mastery in three weeks is demanding, yet maintained the ministry has the tools to support learners.

“Some persons would say what we didn’t do in six years we’re going to try to do in a summer. That’s not absolutely true; it is like an intensive programme. And we are deploying literacy software and licenses that we have procured, [so] we are using that as well, and we have our Jamaica Learning Passport that is built around literacy and numeracy support, so we are pulling in the ICT [information and communications technology], we are pulling in the readers, and we have equipped the regions,” she said.

According to Troupe, participants are closely tracked. Anyone who still falls short of mastery will receive a Government-funded psychoeducational assessment to guide their September high-school programme.

“We are now working with those receiving schools to ensure that the learning programmes are developed in response to the gaps identified in those learners. We are restructuring some of those learning programmes in some of those high schools to limit the number of subjects the students are exposed to; to increase the amount of time that they will need in literacy, numeracy, language arts, mathematics, ICT, physical education, and I think social studies and personal development,” she said, noting that wider subject loads will follow once skills improve.

She said pupils were placed at nearby schools or other centres closest to home for easier access, and the scheme was built to cut costs for families.

“We have also looked at providing nutritional support through Nutrition Products Limited for the students, we provided the teachers or the tutors — and that is something that the Government is fully funding — so the parents are not contributing to summer school in any way — we are paying. It’s fully funded by the Government. We have our principals who are coordinating, we have our literacy coaches and specialists who have been deployed into the field,” she said.

Troupe urged parents to get children to the sessions, arguing steady family support will decide the outcome.

“We are asking our parents to make the sacrifice. And if they can’t afford whatever it is, let us know because we will make the sacrifice and put the resources in place — because the end game is for all of our students to be literate before they go to high school,” she declared.