Little Miz English : The Ministry of Education in Jamaica

The Ministry of Education in Jamaica

Because I’m an education nerd, I always try to visit a school when I travel to different countries. I think observing schools is the best way to learn the culture of a place because schools are where culture is passed on. I was so lucky because my friend’s mother-in-law, Evette Denis, is a senior education officer for the Ministry of Education Region 6. While in Jamaica, I was able to attend a principals back-to-school conference, hear the Minister of Education speak and tour the region 6 offices, a high school, and an elementary school. Here are some things I learned during my time in Jamaica.

Children in Jamaica actually start attending early childhood programs at age 3. Most children are able to read before they start official school at age 6. When I was interviewing Mrs. Denis, she remarked that this is the best part of education in Jamaica. The country does a good job in supporting early childhood education. This was evidenced to me at the conference I attended because there were lots of resources for early childhood education.

Children can either attend a public or a private school. Private schools are better but are very expensive and most parents cannot afford it (see my earlier post on the economy). Jamaica is currently not zoned for schools, which means students do not have to attend the school that is nearest them. Schools are able to set their own requirements to accept students, though the ministry is working hard to make sure schools do not use an entrance exam and look at things like enrollment numbers instead.

After Early Childhood is Primary School. At the end of the primary school (grade 6) students take one of two exams: The Technical Entrance Exam for the technical schools or Grade Nine Achievement test for the public/private High Schools. The technical schools focus on skills such as carpentry, mechanics, and sewing.

High schools typically go to the 11^th grade. Some students then choose to go on to Tertiary schools that offer grades 12 and 13 which help to prepare students for college.

Most schools and even the Ministry is behind as far as technology goes. Most schools have at least one computer but most classrooms do not have a computer and most schools do not have a computer lab. As a teacher, I have no idea how I would function without a computer in my classroom, let alone a computer lab and classroom computers (and recently iPad labs). Everything is recorded by hand. In Jamaica, when a person is hired for a job he has a file that contains his birth certificate, school records, and employment history. So, if the teacher takes a sick day, has a baby, changes schools, etc., it is written in their file. Each region of the ministry (there are 6 total) holds the files for the employees in their region. The staff who works at the regional ministry have their files held at the National Ministry office. When a teacher is nearing retirement, the regional ministry notifies them and has them fill out the pension papers. Then the regional ministry sends the teachers file to the pension office in Kingston who then is in charge of the teacher’s pension. Again, this is all done by hand and not by computer. When I visited Region 6’s ministry of education offices, I was impressed by the amount of files housed there. The files for individual students are housed at the schools they are currently attending.

A little bit about the organization of the ministry. The ministry is headed by the Minister of Education who is appointed by the prime minister. The current MoE is Reverend the Honorable Ronald Thwaites who became the MoE in 2012. He is a lawyer by profession and has never been a teacher. The national ministry deals with legislation and the regional ministries deal with managing the schools. The ministry is divided into six regions.

Schools are funded by the government, fees, and fundraising. The latter depends highly on the personality of the principal. The principal needs to be dynamic in order to fundraise. This leads to great differences within the schools. Those schools that have lots of fundraising have lots of supplies and those that don’t, go without.

Principals are evaluated by the senior officers of their region (Mrs. Denis is over all of the senior officers for Region 6). The senior officers see that the principals manage their budgets and check their data. If a principal fails an evaluation, he or she will need to create an action plan and if they continue to fail, her or she can be fired (this does not happen very often and ineffective principals are often managing schools).

The principals compile a report (their budget and school data) and give it to the senior officer at the regional ministry who compiles a report that is sent to the national ministry where they compile a yearly report for the minister of education.

The Principals’ Back To School Conference:

The conference was held at a Presbyterian church in Helshire, which is right along the coast. The theme for the conference was “Leadership with a mission developing a culture of performance.” There was a big challenge to principals to make literacy a priority in their schools. Principals were to be literacy instructional leaders. It was mentioned that literacy is not really being addressed at the higher levels and lots of students are still struggling to read. Principals are encouraged to have their teachers create data and to visit all classes during literacy time at least once a year. They call this a “walk-about.” In September, Region 6 (which is the two largest parishes in Jamaica, St. Catherine and Clarendon) will get a literacy coordinator.

The national Ministry of Education’s motto is “Every child can learn, every child must learn.” I saw this posted on several documents and in schools. After the conference I noticed there were more female staff members than male. I only saw one person on his cell phone throughout the meeting. No one had a laptop or tablet. They were all dressed in business attire.

One shocking statistic is that 60-70 percent of Jamaican students are below grade level. Also surprising is that Jamaica does not have a substitute teacher program. When a teacher is gone, classes are either combined or cancelled.

During the conference the minister of education spoke to the principals. First the conference opened with a prayer, the singing of the national anthem and a prayer by the pastor of the church where the conference was held.

The minister stated that the main purpose of the department was to make sure the next generation had a better education to look forward to. He stated that principals have not been using data efficiently. He then talked about how there is a weak connection between the school and home. He encouraged parents to have their children attend Sunday School classes and discussed how many children do not have fathers involved in their lives (some of this sounds like issues in the US). When he first became the minister, 3% of the budget was going to early childhood education. Now 14% is going to early childhood education. Around 20% of the student population falls in the special education category. There is little if any help for those students. They are working to send in officers to identify special education students. Their plan is for 100% proficiency in literacy and 85% proficiency in math by 2014 (sounds a lot like NCLB-and based on my observations, they will have the same complications in meeting that lofty goal!)

The department is trying to shift the focus of the final exams to critical thinking and not memorization (according to teachers I talked with, the exams are basically the same).

56% of schools were deemed inadequate this past year. There were 105 primary schools deemed inadequate. The school year is 190 days. Teachers are paid for 12 months (however, this is still significantly lower than the US who only pays teachers for 9 months). The minister also suggested training for school bus drivers, who have received no training in the past. Most students have to leave at 5am (some at 3am) to get to school by 8am because of the traffic going into Kingston each morning. The minister encouraged zoning (where students go to the school whose boundaries they live in). This will be almost impossible to enforce due to the current set up. There is no way to regulate it.

Building maintenance is an issue with the schools as well as they are old and the budget is very limited. Some schools do not have the water tanks and therefore have no water when it is shut off and have to close school. During the conference it was pointed out that most of the ministry’s resources are being used for a pilot program that puts tablets in classrooms so there is no money left for a lot of building maintenance. One person actually commented that there’s nothing wrong “with the days of crayons and paper” so schools should be content with the supplies they do have.

The ministry is planning to have all teachers certified to teach in 2020. There are a lot of teachers who have not been certified or received any training on teaching. The comment was made that “things in education have to change because society keeps raising expectations for schools.”