PARENTS WHO choose to school their children at home could soon receive support from the Ministry of Education as efforts are under way to broker a partnership between the groups.
Education Ministry officials speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum on Tuesday at the company's North Street, downtown Kingston offices, pointed to provisions in the formal school system for assessment material as well as access to the public school curriculum, which is now online at the Ministry's website.
"The formal system has instruments which can help you to determine the readiness levels of your child," Student Assessment officer in the Education Ministry, Sephlin Myers-Thomas said.
ACCESS TO EXAM INSTRUMENTS
The Ministry stopped short however of allowing parents access to examination instruments to administer the popular Grade Six Achievement Tests (GSAT) privately to their charges.
Members of a panel, which included parents of high and low level needs children, had pointed to inadequacies in the system which in instances had forced their decision.
Elizabeth Osbourne, parent of a mentally-challenged 17-year-old, rapped the Ministry for neglecting the education and care of mentally-challenged students.
LIFELONG LEARNING SYSTEM
"I would like it to be the responsibility of our Government that disabled children be a part of a lifelong learning system. There shouldn't be a cut-off. There is attention to a point but afterwards it's the full responsibility of the family," said Ms. Osbourne.
"We need to provide a facility to cater to the needs of these children for life. We (parents) need to be recognised and treated equally in every aspect of our lives. It really grieves me to see what we have to be fighting for."
There were calls too for new approaches to education delivery.
"If we're really going to talk about alternative education we really need to talk about alternative ways to deliver education. Not only outside of the system but within the very system, and the home schooling system is in advance of the system..." said Barbara Blake-Hannah.
"Our education system is over a century old and all we're doing is just putting another coat of paint over it. We need a paradigm shift on how to get us on the road to some real education," she said.
"Let's change the way we deliver education. It (in its present form) will never get us where we need to be."
