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Leveraging New Technologies in the
Administration of Education
In keeping with the JLP’s commitment to use technology to
automate and streamline government processes, key technological
advances will be introduced to the Ministry of Education or further
developed, including:
Implementation of the CREM, the Central Repository for
Educational Material which was established when in 2011;
this will ensure that all schools with connectivity will have
access to quality educational material.
An Executive Dashboard to complement the Enterprise
School Management System,
School Inspection Software to enable planning, conducting,
recording and reporting on all school inspections
The Examination Management Information System (EMIS)
to enable greater sharing of examination data
Remove Mandatory school fees at secondary schools by
increasing funds per child in the national budget.
Reform the Students’ Loan Bureau. Increase funds available
for loans through re-financing; and make payments easier by
lowering interest rates, extending re-payment periods, and
calculating loans on the reducing balance.
Provide annual maintenance support for all schools. We
intend to increase annual maintenance allocation to all
schools to support building of sufficient classrooms.
Incentivize enrolment in Tertiary programmes through
scholarships, grants and other tools.
Review the operations of the Early Childhood Commission
with a view to improving oversight of the sector, and complete
the Early Childhood Development Policy.
Strengthen the teaching of literacy and numeracy at the early
childhood level to ensure readiness for Primary Schools.
Roll out the Age 4 Assessment programme across the island,
ensuring that children’s challenges are detected earlier so
that appropriate intervention may start earlier.
Complete the review of the Education Act and Regulations
(1980), and pass the amendments recommended to address
matters which directly or indirectly impede students’ success.
Strengthen the framework for social workers and mental
health care professionals to be involved in school settings,
with a view to providing appropriate support for schools,
families and communities with high levels of disciplinary
challenges and anti-social behaviours.
Implement the licensing of teachers to ensure that our
teachers are appropriately trained and deployed in their
areas of competency.
Include a basic mandatory special education component in
teacher development to ensure that teachers are competent
in identifying special needs in children, and a mandatory
literacy component for all primary and Early Childhood
teaching curricula.
Ensure that teacher training includes gender sensitive
pedagogical approaches to strengthen the focus on
optimizing education for our boys.
Increase the use of locally produced food and juices in our
schools.
Streamline the provision of structured physical education in
primary schools.
Review the operations and programmes of the National
Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) with a view to
strengthening support of good parenting practices.
Increase the number of functioning PTAs in schools to
support the facilitation of better school / home relationships
and increased parent involvement.
Work closely with the new Ministry of Economic Growth &
Job Creation to ensure relevance of curricula and training
programmes.
Implement a National Equivalency Policy in Certification
to ensure greater acceptance of general education and
technical education.
Develop an ICT in Education Policy. This will address use of
technology in administration, as well as teaching; will seek
to give all students access to current technologies; and will
equip all teachers with ICT skills to complement delivery of
the curriculum.
Incorporate local culture and talent in curricula and develop
additional, relevant media content for use in schools.
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Plans to achieve these include the following: