MOE Re-Emphasizes Response and Action for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Schools
Cecilia Smith
Deputy Chief Education Officer Cecilia Ramirez Smith was the featured guest on today’s Ask the Experts Webcast. Students are at home doing home-based learning and so the Ministry of Education is adjusting it programmes. Smith presented further details outlining the Ministry of Education’s response and action taken for pre-primary, primary and secondary education during this period of the state of emergency. She says that a number of methods will be used to offer short lessons to students during the state of emergency. She explains:
Cecilia Smith, Deputy Education Chief Officer
“At the pre-primary and primary levels what we are trying to do is that we are going to use online resources. The main platform would be the Ministry of Education’s website and we are going to upload weekly lessons on that platform for students at the pre-primary, which as we know it to be pre-school and as well as primary. The next thing we are going to do is to reformat those same lessons in a package that will be compatible for radio broadcast. So, we are hoping to reach more students if we are able to produce the same set of instructional lessons for those who might be in rural areas and might not have easy access to internet or data and so they can listen in on the radio. It is really going to be short lessons, fifteen to twenty minutes per day per grade level. So, all the students will need to do is to pay attention to the broadcast schedule and tune in at that time and get the lesson for the day. Then there is one other group that we are going to try and reach, the students who don’t have either access to the data or the radio. So, we are going to try and prepare some print resources. These will be in line with what we are putting online and what we are broadcasting on radio so students will only need to get access to those print resources and over the course of a week or two weeks they will work through the print resources that will become available to them.”
When it comes to the secondary schools, Smith says that a similar approach may be taken but some aspects may vary because of the level and age groups involved. She notes that the high schools play a critical approach in the implementation of these short term academic measures.
