Evening, weekend classes among education interventions coming under PNP gov't - Crawford

Opposition Spokesman on Education, Damion Crawford says a victory for the People’s National Party (PNP) at the upcoming general elections would see it introducing intervention programmes aimed at improving the educational performances of Jamaican students.

Crawford made the comment while addressing a business forum at the Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio in Portland on Sunday and against the background of data showing dips in the performances of students in 2024 Caribbean Examinations Council assessments.

The data indicated that Jamaica saw a decline in Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate passes when compared with 2022, which was used as the base year, given that there had been exam breaches in 2023.

"Early intervention is key to addressing the challenges being faced by students. One of the problems we have is that you wait until the end of the year, you test the child, you do no fixing of the problem, and send that child to another grade,” Crawford commented.

“It leads to what we have now.....18 per cent of our children getting five subjects, including math and English. And so we are going to implement an intervention system that, therefore, corrects the failing at seventh grade..... at week one, at week two, week three, instead of waiting until the end of the year.”

Among the initiatives that will be undertaken by a PNP administration, according to Crawford, would be weekend and evening classes facilitated by trained teachers.

Those present at Sunday's business forum included Prime Minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, and Opposition Leader Mark Golding.

- Gareth Davis

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