How to Improve P.S.E. Scores

So, how do schools improve moving forward? Longsworth says that it will take a concerted effort to see better grades. He says that an overall improved performance will not come about overnight. One indicator that he believes can guide schools is the Belize Junior Achievement Test. He advocates for the BJAT to be used as a tool to help make informed decisions that can help to produce better grades.

Nelson Longsworth

Nelson Longsworth, Director of Examinations Unit, Ministry of Education

“We believe big on the results of BJAT because BJAT measures somewhere halfway within the system at Standard Three so it gives a picture of what has happened before Standard Three and it gives you three years now to see how much more could be done to make a shift in terms of improving students’ performance. Although a lot of fanfare is given to the P.S.E, which is an important measure I am not taking away from that, but we need to start focusing on BJAT and how it can inform us and what can be done to improve students’ performance. The analysis of the results, we are now providing schools with much more detailed information than before which provides – or better interventions can  be targeted to the children based on the fact that we are not just giving them a grade for English narrative or multiple choice. We are breaking it down to more specific units of learning; skills, as in comprehension skills. We are hoping that with the help of district centers they are able to help schools to translate that into where exactly more focus must be placed so that they end up starting doing better and better from Infant one all the way up because you can’t fix it at the end. Interventions are more meaningful when they start from early.”