Teachers in Middle East giving maths lessons to Jamaican students

William Fullerton received an urgent call from his niece in Jamaica. She needed extra help with her mathematics.

Fullerton, a trained maths teacher living in the Middle East, quickly jumped to her assistance. Not long after he began offering maths lessons online to his niece, she asked if he would assist her friends as well.

“And so I started offering the service to her initially, and then to some of her friends,” Fullerton said, adding that the number gradually grew over the months.

Today, he is offering maths classes to about 500 Jamaican students across the island. And the lessons are free.

He is part of a group, the Jamaica Middle East Diaspora Education Task Force, a branch of the Jamaica Middle East Diaspora (JMED), which include mathematics, English and science teachers who have worked not only in Jamaica, but in international schools.

The maths teacher said that he continued teaching his niece and other students until he decided to approach the chairman of the Jamaica Middle East Diaspora Education Task Force, Dr Megel Barker, with the idea to assist more students, especially those preparing for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

Following discussions with members of JMED, an initiative, dubbed ‘CSECStudython’, got under way in December 2020, with students from several high schools receiving lessons in maths, science and English for the CSEC examinations.

The main idea behind this project is to support mathematics and empower CSEC students amid the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the closure of schools with learning continued virtually.

Meanwhile, Barker, who is a maths teacher, said the project, which is now in its second year, recently began with a new batch of students after taking a break in 2021 following the CSEC exams.

“We restarted it. But this year it has exploded … we just did not have enough space on Google Meet and we have literally had to expand it to accommodate 500 students, because we just had an overwhelming demand for students just coming in,” he says.

Barker said that due to the popularity of the maths sessions, he was forced to look at innovative ways, including having live classes on YouTube, to facilitate the large number of students.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Barker, who has 28 years’ teaching experience, said the programme involves the teaching of new topics each week and working through past examination papers. Some of the topics include quadratics solving, trigometric ratios, sine and cosine rules and simultaneous equations.

The two-hour sessions are held on Sundays and holidays, beginning at 11 a.m. (Jamaica time). To support the students, he said that the Power Point presentations are recorded so they can be viewed again by using appropriate devices.

“What we have is an interactive lesson, where they ask questions and ask for explanations. We have reached a point where we would give them homework, they would do it and submit it,” he explained.

Barker, who resides in Oman, said that he is happy to provide the extra lessons to the students. He recalled that as a youngster attending high school in Jamaica, there was always need for extra maths classes, “even when you went to the best schools”.

“But you had to pay for it, so we are just providing that extra maths class free of cost and we fund it ourselves,” he noted.

The educator said that he is pleased with the level of engagement by the students, as well as the support from teachers who have been helping to connect students to the programme in addition to sending out reminder WhatsApp messages.

“What was surprising to me was the level of support we got from teachers; because sometimes teachers are not so keen on getting their students in these programmes, because it may seem that there is some level of inadequacy,” he said.

Asked why he feels the urge to give back to his country, Barker said that the advent of COVID-19 has made a lot of things seem possible, since it never would have occurred to him to teach maths online as a means of giving back.

“The idea of us teaching mathematics 13,000 kilometres away with a nine-hour time difference is something that would not have been contemplated two years ago. COVID has made us realise that technology can bridge that divide,” he said.

“So, when COVID started and JMED approached me to take on the Task Force, we started to look at ways in which we could have an impact … . This is one of the projects that made sense, because we started to connect with schools,” he said.

Barker expressed his commitment to the project, noting that it is the most impactful job that he has done so far.

He is also motivated by the many testimonials and letters from students expressing appreciation for the programme.

“They wrote some lovely letters. They are sending us lovely messages about who got ones; who didn’t pass but are going back this year, because they know that they are ready now,” he said.

Chairman of JMED John Wayne Warren said there is a quest to make Jamaica a better place by helping young people, especially boys.

“You have benefited so much, and you can see and know where you are coming from, socially and educationally. And there is that quest to make Jamaica a better place by giving forward and helping to invest and make a difference,” Warren said.

In the meantime, Fullerton said that the programme is focusing on maths, which is being taught by himself and Barker. However, he said that some students have expressed the need for support in other subjects to prepare them for CSEC, as well as sitting the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination. He is hoping that teachers who have left the programme, due to migration, will rejoin later.

Addressing the growth and development of the programme, he said it would require support on the ground in Jamaica. He noted that the students who successfully attend the sessions have teachers who provide assistance by encouraging them and joining the sessions to see if they are participating.

“We just need teachers on the ground or administrators of the schools to support and encourage the students,” he added.