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Posted: Friday 6 September, 2013 at 8:08 AM

Vast improvements expected for new school year

Minister of Education Hon. Nigel Carty
By: Jenise Ferlance, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - MINISTER with responsibility for Education Senator Nigel Carty has outlined some of the improvements expected to take place throughout this new school year.

     

    In an interview with SKNVibes yesterday (Sept. 5), Carty said this year the Ministry would  focus on the maintenance of the schools with regards to the buildings and that they have already done a vast amount of work on a number of them.

    "One of the things that we are planning to do for this school year, certainly is to improve drastically on our School Maintenance Programme. That is something we are going to focus on. We have done significant work over the last several months. I think people are aware of what has happened at the Basseterre High School and since then we have spent about EC$5M on the Basseterre High School and those fund came from the SIDF.

    "We have also spent significant sums of money on the Cayon High School and the Charles E. Mills Secondary School in Sandy Point. We've spent significant sums of money on the Bronte Welsh Primary School and other schools...

    "The Tucker Clarke Primary School in Newtown, the Dr. Williams Connor Primary School, the Irish Town Primary School, the Saddlers Day Care Centre and Primary School and the schools in Dieppe Bat and St. Pauls will all be receiving attention with respect to some physical improvement over the next month or so," Carty said.

    Carty went on to explain that they would be introducing a new initiative geared towards improving the Mathematics teaching and learning in primary schools.

    "In our primary schools, this year, we are starting what we call ‘Mathematics Specialist Teachers’, and what that means is that we are going to have one teacher who is going to be focusing on teaching Mathematics at Grades Three, Four, Five and Six.

    "Just as we have in the high schools a specialist Maths teacher who goes from 1A1 to 3A2 etc. to teach Mathematics, we are going to have a teacher moving through Grades Three to Six teaching all of the Maths classes."

    Carty said that this Programme was established to curb the challenges children face with the subject, noting that Mathematics is also an area of difficulty throughout the Caribbean.

    He explained that for this year's CXC Examination, the average pass rate was 35 percent Caribbean-wide while St. Kitts had a 50 percent pass rate.

    "We will not be satisfied until we have a 65-70 percent pass rate in Mathematics. So what we are trying to do is improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics at the primary schools, which is the foundational level, so that we can see improved performances in Mathematics follow through the high schools and right throughout the CXC Examination Programme," the Education Minister explained.

    Carty also stated that the Ministry would be continuing its Single Sex Education Initiative which, he said, is where males and females in some of the primary schools are being taught in separate classes.

    "For the last year and a half or so we have, in some of our primary schools, separated boys and girls into different classes and are using different theologies to teach them to try to optimise their learning. This has come about as a result of our recognition of the fact that there is a great disparity in performance between boys and girls."

    The Education Minister enunciated that the Ministry is of the view that if boys are taught by themselves using techniques that are more appropriate for them, there would be a closing of the learning gap between them and girls as well as an increased performance by the boys.

    He indicated that the initiative is in its experimental stage and is being conducted at three primary schools in St. Kitts - Beach Allen, St. Paul’s and Cayon Primary Schools.

    He noted that if after wider research, coupled with this initiative, proves that boys learning improves when taught by themselves, the Ministry may consider having it done throughout all schools within the Federation.

    "So far we have seen a lot more interest among the boys in all of those primary schools. Part of the explanation they have said is that boys tend to have a bit of self-consciousness when they are in the classroom with girls. If they have difficulty reading, they wouldn't try hard because they don't want to be embarrassed. 

    "They don't mind doing those things among themselves as boys, but to be in a classroom with girls and you are trying to read and trying to count and you can't do it well, you are inhibited and we believe that that is part of the reason for what we are seeing," he said.

    Carty said that in the recently concluded Test of Standards Examination the Ministry has seen a better performance among the boys in those three schools than in any of the other schools across the island.
     
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