Hazel promises education accountability

“The Ministry of Education is all of us,” Manning said as she spoke on the proposed Green Paper on an education quality framework geared towards better education in the nation’s schools.

Speaking at the Cascadia Hotel yesterday, Manning said education will be provided for all children despite significant differences such as ethnicity and race.

Manning said the Logan incident was the basis for which the ministry decided that no child would be excluded from pursuing a secondary education.

In 2004, a Cabinet-appointed committee oversaw means in which improvements could be made for teaching standards at all schools.

Education officials, representatives from UNESCO and the IDB were able to get a first-hand view of the newly drafted Green Paper.

Education Ministry Planning Officer III Roger Beckles said based on statistics, 3.5 percent of children were not attending school and this figure was of major concern to the ministry.

He said the other 96.5 percent of children inside schools seemed impressive but this was not a “safe bet” since it was not known if these students were getting the proper education, since no prior means of assessing the teaching effectiveness in the classes were put in place by the ministry.

Dr Stephen Joseph, project manager of the Secondary Edu-cation Modernisa-tion Programme (SEMP), said ad-dressing education meant attacking the near eradication of societal problems derived through statistics for example poverty, crime and other socio-economic factors which were cited in section 1 - 1.1.1 of the first Green Paper on the draft quality standards for education.

Joseph said these “living” documents depend on improvements in the education system such as professional training of teachers, more equipment in schools, introduction of social workers in schools and establishment of school boards.

Basil Mortley — project coordinator on the Quality Agenda of the Ministry of Education, highlighted section 2 - 2.2 of the first paper, which stated that dialogue was needed to be encouraged by all stakeholders regarding the education system.

Angella Jack, permanent secretary in the ministry said: “It was important to remember the Green Paper was the first stage to the enactment of the White Paper for improved quality standards of education and they (as in the workers) don’t stay overnight at the ministry.”