By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterTHE MINISTRY of Education will next week begin acquainting educators with the details of a "strategic intervention programme" aimed at improving the poor performance of students in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) mathematics and English examinations.
The programme, which is scheduled to begin in September, will cost some $10 million in implementation stage, and targets 60 high schools and five technical high schools whose students have been consistently failing the CXC mathematics and English examinations attaining grades four to six.
Schools that have been entering fewer than 20 students to sit the examinations will also be included in the remedial programme. The Gleaner first reported on June 9 that the Ministry would be implementing the programme to boost student-performance in the two core subjects.
Adelle Brown, acting chief education officer in the Ministry of Education, said yesterday that the Ministry "will be talking with the officers and the various supervisors this week and we will be meeting with principals and heads of departments (in mathematics and English at the targeted high schools) in the summer." She was addressing reporters at the Ministry's offices at National Heroes' Circle.
TECHNOLOGICALLY DRIVEN
Also, she said the programme would be technologically driven, using several recorded media to impart mathematics and English concepts through easily comprehensible methods.
Education officers from the Ministry, trainers from the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) programme and 15 master teachers specialising in mathematics and English, will monitor the three-year programme, according to Mrs. Brown.
The programme will benefit 11th graders in the next administrative year, and it is expected that it will result in a five per cent increase in performance in the two subjects at the next CXC sitting.
Over time, students from grades nine and 10 will also benefit, according to Mrs. Brown.
