Penmanship not being tested

Seeking to correct misinformation in the public domain that penmanship formed a component of the SE A, Garcia said, “The SE A does not include penmanship in its table of specifications and as such will not be scored.” The Ministry of Education’s latest initiative, Penmanship with a Purpose Project is meant to ensure that all primary school students leave with the ability to read, write and count.

The initiative, Garcia said in a Ministry of Education release said, refocuses schools’ attention on the hand-writing skills of students and takes a cross-curricular approach by evaluating written work in mathematics, science, history, social studies, art and foreign languages.

“Though we live in an age dominated by keyboarding and touch screens, the contribution of writing by hand in a child’s development cannot be underestimated,” he said.

Handwriting is the primary mode of learning words, vocabulary and language, the release said. Since many students’ experience handwriting difficulties, the skill of writing by hand is being reinforced to helping students in language and learning in general.

Strategies to support the implementation of penmanship at schools include teacher modelling of best practice penmanship, monitoring of student writing across subjects, selection and application of a standard pattern across the Infant One to Standard Five, and scheduling penmanship on the timetable.

The ministry has implemented several programmes to enhance students’ receptivity and performance to improve numeracy and literacy. This includes the Laventille/Morvant Initiative. Meanwhile, the release said, the Curriculum Division has tested students across 20 primary and five secondary schools assessing their literacy and numeracy level to inform Curriculum Development moving forward.

The release quoted a 2010 Indiana University study in which students were exposed to different letter-learning instruction. The study revealed that children who had practised printing letters by hand were far more enhanced than their counterparts who had only looked at the letters.

Penmanship, the release said, contributes to students’ literacy, reading comprehension, recall, critical thinking, conceptual development and creativity. Writing by hand, the release said, is also a powerful learning tool that has links to self-esteem, creative expression, critical thinking and improved academic performance.