THREAD: Education Minister @fayvalwilliams made her sectoral debate presentation in the House today. Key highlights include announcement of government-sponsored extra lessons for students affected by #COVID19. Programme will be launched when face-to-face classes resume.

Williams - this fiscal year, edu budget $117.3bn, puts sector second only to finance ministry which has a large budget because of debt amortisation and interest
payment.

Recent World Bank study shows that Jamaica’s education spending has been relatively high for a long time as a percentage of GDP when compared to Caribbean small states. - Williams

Williams said if comparison taken beyond the Caribbean region Jamaica's expenditure is within international norm and higher than most regional peers.

on a per-student basis, comparatively speaking, Jamaica's per-student expenditure as a share of this country’s GDP is comparable to the best.

76% of Jamaica's education budget spent on
all staff compensation, 22% on recurrent expenditure other than compensation, 2% on capital
spending (school buildings primarily). - FW

Re staff compensation, most of budget goes to deliver
instruction, esp primary & secondary levels. That is a good thing. At the primary level, 97% of
the budget goes to deliver instruction. The persons who deliver instruction are our teachers. That is a
good thing to - FW

On the issue of student-teacher ratio, Minister Williams said Jamaica is doing "comparatively well". Re teacher qualification "we are not doing badly either". 92% trained teachers in gov't run infant schools. high level of untrained tertiary grads in polytechnic schools. - FW

Every Jamaican dollar gov't spends on education on a per-student basis, households add $1.50 at the pre-primary level and $0.70 at the primary and secondary level.
Household expenditure on education represented approximately 2.6% of GDP in 2017. - FW

@fayvalwilliams also spoke about the National Standards Curriculum whose goal she said is to improve general academic performance, attitude and behaviour of students. Emphasis on project-based and
problem-solving learning. Civics among additions.

GOJ spends about $1 billion on educational resources and textbooks for students. Textbook possession at 76.9% among poorest students, 96% among richest quintile.

GOJ spends approximately $6.3 billion annually on lunch to students as well as the breakfast and snacks delivered to schools. During pandemic funds paid directly to parents for lunch to be provided for their children. - FW

Approximately 5,000 students on PATH (a conditional cash transfer programme) from 139 of targeted 245 primary and high schools benefit from the rural transportation programme at a cost of $380
million. - FW

Budget for devices and connectivity is $754.7 million. By end of current school year, over 125,000 tablets and laptops given to students. Last fiscal year, ministry spent approximately $2 billion on devices and connectivity. - FW

Education Minister on what's 'missing' in education sector: "What are we missing that’s preventing us from having high student achievement across the board in our public schools?"

On accountability: @fayvalwilliams said output from public education sector is student achievement. But public education sector has not been doing a good job at producing high student achievement. Yes, there are some schools that have commendable student
achievement.

Williams said many factors determine student
achievement "but of the many studies I have read, the two most important factors that keep recurring
as important factors that determine student achievement are the teacher and the student". Why the teacher:

@fayvalwilliams: We are too overly dependent on the individual teacher to be the fount of all knowledge, to make classes interesting, to provide psychosocial support; to be mother and father; provide class resources and to discipline the students.

Legislation to strengthen teacher accountability through Jamaica Teaching Council being given high priority - FW

Williams said a revised teacher appraisal model being implemented. "The Teacher Appraisal model, is not for punitive purposes but for a powerful point of reflection, support and growth"

Williams said another strategy to recover from the learning gap and get ahead is to focus on boys. Jamaica Teaching Council led by Dr. Winsome Gordon, found that schools that experimented with single sex classes saw improved achievement levels of boys in Math and English

"I know that gender-based teaching and learning is not very popular in international circles. However, we are in a crisis in education in Jamaica, made worse by the pandemic, and we have to try many different things that will get our boys learning." - @fayvalwilliams

Absenteeism is a major cause of students’ lost
school time. National average for full school attendance is 74.6%. Only 70.1% of children from poorest quintile attend school regularly compared with 83.1% in the richest quintile.

@fayvalwilliams: Research shows that 1.8% of our children are absent 0 – 9 days in the school year; 2.8% are absent 10 – 14 days in the school year and 21.2% are absent 15 – 19 days out of the school year

Asthma playing a major role in student absenteeism in Jamaica. Asthma is 1.5x more likely to be prevalent in boys than in girls. Problem exists in the corporate area as well as in the rural area. We are bringing some urgent attention to this health problem among our children.

Student registration app coming: Williams "We consider absenteeism from school as an early warning alarm bell and we need to put a mechanism across the school network that will allow us to collect information in real time about attendance of our students at schools.

Williams: 10% of females who drop-out say it is because they have no interest in school while 41% of males who drop-out of school say “no interest in school”. This suggests to me that especially for these boys, schools are not meeting their
needs.

NEWS: 49% of girls who drop-out of school before grade 11 is a result of pregnancy. - @fayvalwilliams

Between 2010 and 2017, the percentage
of students who stopped attending school because they were expelled from school increased from 6% to
10%. When looked at by gender, boys are two 2x more likely to be expelled than girls. - Williams

32.6% of children identified as having at
least one developmental problem in 2018 study of students at early childhood level . The most common developmental problems identified were in
understanding (13.8%) and learning (12.9%).

107 early childhood institutions assessed as ready to be transitioned to Government infant schools. - FW

Currently, in our tertiary institutions, among the lowest quintile, only 11% of students attend tertiary institutions. Even though the percentage increases as we move up the quintiles, the highest is 36% in the
top quintile of students who attend tertiary institutions. - FW

Core subjects for matriculation to tertiary institutions are Math and English Of the
Grade 11 cohort of 36,260 students in 2019, only 25% or 9,234 students passed 5 CSEC including Maths and English A.

Williams: Cabinet has granted approval for the development of the National Higher Education Policy to govern the higher education sector.

Williams: only 35% of the average 40,000 Grade 11 students transition to a sixth form programme. Mainly because most schools do not have the physical capacity to accommodate their full Grade 11 cohort at Grades 12 and 13.

17% of schools have enrolment that exceed 20% of
capacity. 5% of students in all-age schools, 11% in
primary schools and 18% in secondary/high school impacted by still having schools on shift system - FW

@fayvalwilliams outlines top legislative issues for education sector: proposed law to licence teachers, amendments to education act; proposed higher education law

Williams says "character education" to be part of curriculum in schools. It will also have an exam component. Uniformed groups (Cadets, Scouts,
Red Cross, 4H, Rangers, among others) to become prominent.

Education ministry recently conducted an audit of
Uniformed Groups in schools to determine the areas of greatest needs and the type of support that will
be required. We currently have 635 uniformed groups in schools. They need to be in each of the 1000
schools. - Williams

Approximately 16,000 students from 22 primary and secondary schools in areas covered under zones of special operations to benefit from interventions

NEWS: Education Minister @fayvalwilliams says the Caribbean Military Academy ( https://caribbeanmilitaryacademy.edu.jm/ )will become a sixth-form option.

National School Leaving Certificate to be institutionalised. Certificate would highlights students' accomplishments.

NEWS: Education @fayvalwilliams says new schools being built must consider boarding options to "take children out of certain toxic environments".

Williams says programmes to be launched to ensure each grade 13 student leaves high school with their passport.
Ministry to provide driving lessons to Grade 13 students