Ministry of Education Upgrades Technology in Schools

Minister of Education the Hon. Andrew Fahie with Permanent Secretary Mrs. Sheila Brathwaite (left), Education Officer for Technology Mr. Tyron Smith and Deputy Director of the Department of Information Technology Ms. Lucia Donovan (right-end) after the press conference held at the Central Administration Conference on November 19.

As mentioned by His Excellency the Governor Mr. David Pearey in the Speech from the Throne on November 13, Government through the Ministry of Education and Culture is taking steps to improve the use of technology in the education system. 

At a press conference held yesterday Minister of Education and Culture Honourable Andrew Fahie told the media that in 2007 Government through the Ministry of Education and Culture signed a contract with the Pearson Company to upgrade the SASI software to “PowerSchool” to compliment and improve the already implemented SASI software used in the education system since 1998. 

“This technology in itself will not be the “be all”, nor the “do all”, nor the “solve all” in education,” the Minister said.

He added, “This course of action will assist in a significant manner with fast tracking in order to produce greater accountability, transparency, effectiveness, efficiency, among others, in our education system in ‘real time’.”

Honourable Fahie said this system will allow users to track students’ progress, almost instantaneously and the benefits of moving in this direction are tremendous for all education stakeholders.   ~~Adz:Right~~

The minister said the system will automatically forward electronic notifications to parents, flagging areas of concern in the academic, as well as other areas of their child’s education experience.

Permanent Secretary Mrs. Sheila Brathwaite said she has very high hopes for this new system.  “We expect that the overall maintenance cost of this new system versus that of SASI to be reduced by 55% and for teachers to be fully trained, be conversant with the technology and equipped with the tools of the trade,” she said.

Education Officer for Technology Mr. Tyron Smith said the most significant part of this new system is that it takes advantage of the Internet. “It facilitates greater parental involvement enhancing the home-school partnership,” he said.

A team from the Department of Information Technology gave a presentation at the press conference highlighting the features of this new system which include access to class schedules, grades, homework, attendance information and teacher comments.

Principals, teachers and other education officials will participate in training sessions beginning on Monday, November 24 through Friday, December 5.

PowerSchool is the leading fully web-based student information system which was established by the Pearson Company in 1997.  There are over 8,000 powerschools in the United States and around the world supporting parents, students, teachers and administrators in the various communities.