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JTA and Government to discuss decline in student performance

Howard Isaacs, JTA President

The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) is seeking to collaborate with the government to provide an informed response to this year's decline in performance by students in some CSEC examinations.
   
Howard Isaacs, the newly installed JTA President, is expecting to meet with Education Minister Ruel Reid and other officials by the end of this week to facilitate this process.
  
This year, there was a 3.2% decrease in Additional Mathematics scores, an 11.9% decrease in Integrated Science and a 3.4% decrease in Chemistry, when compared with CSEC results for 2015.
  
Mr. Isaacs has confirmed that one major factor is the latest round of migration of teachers from the system.
  
But speaking on RJR's Beyond the Headlines, he stressed this might not be the only factor contributing to the exodus, and therefore all relevant information must be considered in order to develop strategies to fix the problem.

"So we need to have a cooperative response, and that takes place by doing a consultation, and within the next couple days I am of the view that the Ministry - through the Minister and the Permanent Secretary - will be able to sit with us and have that dialogue required," he said.

He added that a scholarship programme for training of teachers of mathematics and science will start this year, "and therefore within the next three/four years we'll have a set of teachers coming out from the colleges that will be able to tackle some of the science and mathematics areas that we are losing."

He conceded, however, that there will still be a time lag before those new teachers become available, and additional efforts will have to be made to address that problem.



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