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 11th 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.”
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| How to use your program to hide talking on the phone while the minister is speaking. |
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| The minister of education-sorry it's blurry. |
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| Snazzy shoes for the conference |
