Government to implement education plans
Friday December 30 2005
With the dawn of 2006 just a few days away, new plans for education in the Federation of St. Kitts/Nevis have been put in motion.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas presented the 2006 Budget address and indicated that for the upcoming year more focus will be placed on changing the educational system so that it better caters for students with varying abilities.
“…Our students continue to excel at the CXC exams … However, we are now changing the focus of the educational system to ensure that more students of varying abilities are given the opportunity to complete high school. We want to ensure that even those students, who are not capable of passing 10 or 11 CXC subjects, are provided every opportunity to complete their high school education and to attain whatever number of subjects might be consistent with their capabilities.
“Hence in evaluating the performance of schools we will not only be focusing on the number of passes as a percentage of the number of subjects sat. We will also place great focus on the number of successful students relative to the total number of students enrolled at the school,” Dr. Douglas said.
The PM also noted that efforts will be made to identify, at early stages, students with learning disabilities.
“The Ministry of Education would also be restructuring the remedial programmes in schools to make them more responsive to the needs of the slower students. Focus will be on improving reading and language skills as well as core mathematics skills, basic science and social studies.
“We are convinced that our success in guiding a greater percentage of our students through the entire school system and reducing the number of dropouts, would help to reduce crime dramatically.”
Douglas said also as part of the plan for 2006, the government intends “to ensure that even where students are not able to complete the formal academic requirements of high school education, they would be provided with alternative training that would prepare them to take up entrepreneurial and employment opportunities in our society.”
Plans of expanding certain learning institutions including Project Strong and Youth Skills were also outlined.
“We also intend to expand the role of the Advance Vocation Education Centre, Youth Skills and Project Strong to provide life long learning opportunities for school leavers, young adults and unemployed persons. Moreover, in expanding the roles of these institutions we will also seek to build an integrated Vocational Education System by creating linkages and exploiting synergies between the operations of these institutions.
“Already, The Youth Skills and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College have begun to play an invaluable role in retraining the former SSMC workers with the requisite skills to allow them to re-enter the job market. Indeed we propose to convert the Youth Skills Programme into a National Skills Training Programme and expand its mandate to cover a much wider range of skills and to serve a much broader clientele,” PM Douglas said.
© SUN Printing & Publishing LTD 2003-2004.
Friday December 30 2005
With the dawn of 2006 just a few days away, new plans for education in the Federation of St. Kitts/Nevis have been put in motion.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas presented the 2006 Budget address and indicated that for the upcoming year more focus will be placed on changing the educational system so that it better caters for students with varying abilities.
“…Our students continue to excel at the CXC exams … However, we are now changing the focus of the educational system to ensure that more students of varying abilities are given the opportunity to complete high school. We want to ensure that even those students, who are not capable of passing 10 or 11 CXC subjects, are provided every opportunity to complete their high school education and to attain whatever number of subjects might be consistent with their capabilities.
“Hence in evaluating the performance of schools we will not only be focusing on the number of passes as a percentage of the number of subjects sat. We will also place great focus on the number of successful students relative to the total number of students enrolled at the school,” Dr. Douglas said.
The PM also noted that efforts will be made to identify, at early stages, students with learning disabilities.
“The Ministry of Education would also be restructuring the remedial programmes in schools to make them more responsive to the needs of the slower students. Focus will be on improving reading and language skills as well as core mathematics skills, basic science and social studies.
“We are convinced that our success in guiding a greater percentage of our students through the entire school system and reducing the number of dropouts, would help to reduce crime dramatically.”
Douglas said also as part of the plan for 2006, the government intends “to ensure that even where students are not able to complete the formal academic requirements of high school education, they would be provided with alternative training that would prepare them to take up entrepreneurial and employment opportunities in our society.”
Plans of expanding certain learning institutions including Project Strong and Youth Skills were also outlined.
“We also intend to expand the role of the Advance Vocation Education Centre, Youth Skills and Project Strong to provide life long learning opportunities for school leavers, young adults and unemployed persons. Moreover, in expanding the roles of these institutions we will also seek to build an integrated Vocational Education System by creating linkages and exploiting synergies between the operations of these institutions.
“Already, The Youth Skills and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College have begun to play an invaluable role in retraining the former SSMC workers with the requisite skills to allow them to re-enter the job market. Indeed we propose to convert the Youth Skills Programme into a National Skills Training Programme and expand its mandate to cover a much wider range of skills and to serve a much broader clientele,” PM Douglas said.
© SUN Printing & Publishing LTD 2003-2004.
