More marks for penmanship

Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan mentioned this while addressing students and teachers at the launch of Penmanship with a Purpose, hosted by the Ministry of Education held at the Government Campus Plaza, Richmond Street, Port of Spain.

“Those of you who are preparing to write the SE A next year, you need to take note,” he said. Seecharan said there are those who argued that penmanship was no longer relevant in this age of keyboarding, e-mail, texts and tweets, but new evidence suggest strong links between penmanship and broader educational development.

“Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information.

In other words, it is not just what we write, but how. Putting pen to paper stimulates the brain like nothing else.” He said although living in a digital era, most people still write in some way every single day and writing is part of daily life.

“We keep notes, we jot down reminders to ourselves, we leave messages for others. “We teach penmanship because good handwriting help students to focus. Penmanship is a powerful learning and a creative tool aligned to self-esteem, creativity, thinking and improved academic performance.

“As we prepare students to take their place in the world of work, we must recognise that whatever part we take, it requires legible handwriting, regardless of the age we are in, or the technological resources that are at our disposal.” Also speaking at the launch, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said handwriting must be a skill that all students must acquire.

“Handwriting is of extreme importance, although many people do not attach that level of importance to it, which is a form of communication. If we are to communicate effectively, then an important component of the communication process is the way in which we write.

“Due to this we have decided that we needed to launch this project, which will be carried throughout our primary schools in particular and Forms One and Two in our secondary schools.” He said after the first phase the ministry would move into the schools to train teachers, ensuring what they did was in accordance with the proper practices of handwriting.

Garcia said long ago one could tell what primary school a student attended by their handwriting. This still applied in some cases.

“There is one school – Arima Girls’ RC school – the students who leave that school show a type of handwriting that is similar throughout, and it could be read easily, and it is something the ministry admires.

“It is our hope that this type of teaching of handwriting skills will be infused throughout the education system, in particular throughout our primary schools.” Garcia is the MP for Arima.