Hazel gives textbooks failing grade
Education Minister Hazel Manning yesterday said she was concerned that the quality of textbooks in the country were unsatisfactory, and has mandated that members of the Textbook Review Committee (TRC) begin work towards having the required ability and expertise in textbook writing. The minister’s concerns were expressed in a statement in which she announced that the TRC received 211 books from 21 publishers during the period September to October last year. The books were in the subject areas of Mathematics, Language Arts and Reading and were for possible use in the primary schools. Manning pointed out that of the 39 Maths books reviewed, 26 were deemed suitable for use. Sixty-eight Language Art books were reviewed and only eight were said to be suitable, while of the 39 Reading texts reviewed, only nine were found to be suitable. The minister also said that a significant number of the books submitted for review were not texts, and as such were classified as "workbooks" and "other resource books." She said the books were reviewed for conformity to the curriculum, quality in content, methodology, language and editorial quality and design and presentation. The review was necessary since the texts in the subject areas had run their stipulated three-year cycle from 2002 to 2005.
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"Hazel gives textbooks failing grade"