Literacy at risk
Published:Monday | May 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
EDUCATION MINISTER Andrew Holness has expressed grave concerns that a teacher strike could affect students' performance in the upcoming Grade Four Literacy Test.
Holness' warning comes in the wake of the revelation of results from last year's examinations which showed below-par and, in some cases, abysmal performance.
The test, which is viewed as a benchmark for literacy among primary-level students across the island, will take place in June.
"One day absent from the classroom is one lesson not taught. It is one concept not grasped that could have assisted a child in attaining mastery," Holness told The Gleaner yesterday afternoon.
The nation's public-school teachers stayed away from classrooms for two days last week to press their demand for the payment of billions of dollars in retroactive salaries.
Following that bout of industrial action, the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), which represents more than 22,000 teachers, last Friday announced another two-day strike which would have started today had the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) not put a spoke in its wheels through a restraining order.
The tribunal, the traditional referee in labour conflicts, has also scheduled a meeting for Wednesday to begin hearing the dispute between the teachers and the Government. The parties are duty bound to accept the ruling of the IDT.
Imf block
The JTA wants the finance ministry, this year, to pay 50 per cent of the $8 billion outstanding, but the ministry says it is constrained by a recently sealed agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The Government's offer of $1 billion has been rejected by the teachers.
Yesterday, the JTA said its teachers would obey the dictates of the IDT and turn up for work today.
The Ministry of Education has registered approximately 46,000 students for the Grade Four Literacy Test.
Last year, 45 per cent of public-school students who sat the test achieved mastery in numeracy, while 77 per cent of those in private schools achieved mastery.
In the area of literacy, 67 per cent of students in public schools achieved mastery, compared to 93 per cent of those in private schools.
"We were projecting a seven per cent improvement in literacy this year, but it is now at risk," Holness said.
However, Michael Stewart, president of the JTA, said industrial action could not be posited as the sole reason for a possible fall-off in performance.
"I believe that our teachers are competent and they are committed to the process at hand and they will do their best in teaching the students, so they are prepared for the examinations that are about to take place," Stewart said.
He noted that two days out of the classroom would not have a drastic impact on learning.
"The teachers have always prepared them, and, in any event, there are students who attend schools very poorly. We have students who are not attending schools often because of the harsh economic climate that we are now in, so I would not want to say the two days would have impacted negatively on their performance," Stewart added.
Meanwhile, in a statement released yesterday, Holness conceded it was not unreasonable for teachers to ask that they be paid what was due them. He said, however, "The Government cannot and dare not break the commitment it has made towards fiscal responsibility.
"We are now, for the first time, at a point of reckoning, where we are seeing our way out of almost an eternal financial crisis. We have passed a piece of legislation called the Fiscal Responsibility Legislation, and once we have announced what the deficit target is, we cannot and dare not break those deficit targets," Holness said.