'We're all to blame' - Principals react to Grade Four Literacy Test results

Carl Gilchrist, Gleaner Writer

PRINCIPALS OF primary schools have blamed all stakeholders in the education system for the decline in the number of students achieving mastery in this year's Grade Four Literacy Test.

Figures from the Ministry of Education revealed that 67 per cent of students at primary and all-age schools achieved mastery, compared to 71 per cent last year.

"There are many factors: parents, teachers, students, the Ministry of Education," Evadney Weathers, principal of Devon All-Age in Manchester, told The Gleaner last Thursday.

"Many of the parents are teens, so parental guidance is not there, proper guidance is not being given. The only guidance they get is what they get at school," said Weathers.

Weathers said the delivery of the lessons could also be a factor which has contributed to the poor results.

"You have to know the students to prepare delivery," she argued. "One size doesn't fit all. I think we need to re-examine some of the strategies we teachers use."

Ministry also to blame

Weathers said the ministry was also to blame, noting that while they have many programmes in place, sometimes new ones are introduced before the preceding one is fully implemented and assessed.

"Students are sometimes not ready to be taught, as some are sick nutritionally, but the parents still send them to school," she continued.

Additionally, technology is impacting negatively. According to Weathers, the shortened spelling style used in text messaging is having a negative impact.

Principal at McCooks Primary School in Inswood, St Catherine, Marcia Hynes, said mastering reading is important, noting that she had already started to address that situation at her school.

"We've been trying; our reading club is one way we want to impact," Hynes revealed.

"In the reading club they (students) will approach everything we would do in language class in a different way. I know this is going to help my school, I am gunning for that because we have our strategies," she affirmed.

Hynes said, too, that it was important to ensure that students enjoy what they are doing.

Proper reading essential

Janet Smith, principal at Lawrence Tavern Primary in St Andrew, shared Hynes' views on reading. She sees proper reading as a stepping stone and thinks parents are the key to improvement in that area.

"I am sure if we get back parents reading with their children it would improve, but everything is left to the school," Smith opined. She said teachers are making a real effort with reading, but students are still lacking reading and comprehension skills.

"We have difficulty with kids completing their homework and this goes to show that parents are not supervising them. If we can get parents back onboard, it would go a far way in solving the problem."

To begin addressing the problem, she said Lawrence Tavern Primary has started a one-hour reading session each morning.

"We have gone back to teaching phonics which is basic for reading."

No comment

Meanwhile, Ann-Marie Franklyn-Brown, principal of Granville All-Age in St James, declined to comment, saying the school was in the middle of a process of trying to find out what the problems are.

"We have not yet completed that so we don't wish to comment at this time," she said.

For her part, Amy James, principal at St Ann's Bay Primary, said the shift system, such as what exists at her school, negatively impacts on the teaching process.

According to her, students generally need five hours contact teaching each day, but with the shift system, the time has been cut to three hours.

At the same time, she explained that the same results could not be expected with a different cohort each year.

"Each year we get a different crop. Teachers work just as hard but each year we get a different cohort," James said.