‘Form One Project’ to help struggling students

“We are of the belief that it does not matter where a child attends school, particularly at the secondary level, they should be assured of a quality education. (More than) 3,500 students who did the SE A cannot score over 30 percent in Maths and Language. If you understand the deleterious effects of that on them, their families and the society, it would be criminal of the ministry not to be concerned.” Speaking during a press conference at the ministry’s St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain head office last Thursday, Francis said the ministry had decided, via the office of Chief Education Officer, Harrilal Seecharan, “to launch the Form One project where we will not only intervene in terms of providing students with the numeracy and literacy skills that they need but also track their development to make sure that the schools are adding some value to them.” Newsday asked if this project was based on a recommendation from the February 2016 National Consultation on Education, to which Francis replied, “Not it’s not directly part of the consultation but it comes from the same pool of ideas; that we really need to ensure all students get a quality education.” Expanding on Francis’ response, Seecharan said the ministry examined the SE A results and “identified those under-performing students”.

It then went further to look at the secondary schools in which those students were placed.