Caribbean educators discuss learning loss, recovery after COVID Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

While agreeing that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an ‘enormous’ learning loss for Caribbean students, several stakeholders across the region, including in Jamaica, have crafted various strategies aimed at achieving learning recovery.

From the Jamaican perspective, Education Officer at the Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr Lorna Thompson, said mass media had been utilised to assist students, parents and teachers to continue the business of education throughout the pandemic.

“We decided that we would use radio, we would use television, we would use learning kits, and the newspaper… We also had our WhatsApp groups going,” outlined Thompson on Thursday.

She was among several panellists at the two-day virtual staging of the sixth Amazing Math Powers and Literacy Conference 2022, hosted by The Book Merchant in collaboration with Shortwood Teachers’ College and the Jamaica Teaching Council.

Thompson pointed out that the Education Ministry also paid particular attention to the emotional and social wellbeing of students.

“We tried so many different character education; the integrity, the respect for others, the respect for self,” she indicated.

The education officer said t with the first full resumption of face-to-face engagement since the COVID-19 pandemic, the support from the ministry will continue, especially with new teachers joining the classrooms fresh from training institutions, to fill the gaps left by teachers who have resigned.

“We have to support our teachers, because some of our teachers have gone to advance the welfare of the whole human race, and so, those who have been left behind, we have to now train them…, especially the college students,… and continue to support them. So we will recover and we are on the road to recovery,” said Thompson.

Acting Assistant Director of Education in the Ministry of Education in The Bahamas, Leja Burrows, explained that her country shares similar challenges with learning loss relative to its students.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic impacted school attendance and then later created a situation which she described as “unfinished learning”.

“During the summer, we held an intense tutoring programme, where students were identified as being below the expected levels. We had four weeks, and this provided a smaller class grouping and individual education plan and streamlined timetable for literacy and numeracy,” Burrows stated.

For the upcoming academic year, Burrows said a plan will be developed with various regional partners such as CARICOM, to implement best practices in creating instructional programmes.

“We have to address absenteeism, and so, we have hired 25 new attendant officers, and they are going to canvas the communities during school hours, to ensure that every child is attending school,” she stated.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, she emphasised the positive impact of the technological development on the delivery of education and the efficiency it has created on the administrative side within that island’s school system.

Meanwhile, Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education in Belize, Dr Carol Babb, said the pandemic has highlighted the struggle of educational stakeholders globally, to put systems in place to address the negative impacts on education.

“We have to look at students’ academic performance, but, also, very importantly, on their social and emotional learning,” she indicated.

In Belize, Babb said focus should be placed on learning recovery there.

“I think our emphasis should be on literacy and numeracy. For us, many of the most deserving students, they have been literally not been engaged because most of them don’t have the devices, (and) most of them don’t have access to internet,” she pointed out.

As regional education now focuses on technology, Babb said her country must now focus on finding ways to ensure that students have the relevant learning devices.

“I also believe we need to support our teachers. This is a very difficult time for them, because the learning loss is huge, and if we look at early childhood, there are a number of students who have never been to school.

“So, we need to provide quality support to our teachers, to ensure that they are meeting the needs of our students, and I also think we need to involve our parents more,” stated Babb.

Mark Garland, the Deputy Director of Education in the Turks and Caicos Islands Ministry of Education, also disclosed that there has been learning loss in that country among students.

To address the issue, Garland said the country has partnered with CARICOM and other agencies in the creation of a programme called ‘Let’s Reap’.

“Let’s Reap is really a learning recovery programme designed to address the learning loss from the unprecedented disruptions in education and help students, teachers and parents, to meet learning outcomes at appropriate grade levels,” he shared.

Though admitting that the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the British overseas territory, Garland asserted that the country has “arisen” from them.

“We are equipped to deliver quality education to our students, and to ensure that what was delivered during the pandemic, they have an opportunity to catch up and make an effort to retain that syllabus that was lost,” he indicated.

Meantime, Chief Executive Officer of The Book Merchant Limited, Sharon Elliot, said the two-day workshop has been held annually to “positively impact the lives of Caribbean people”.

“I encourage you to get as much out of this (the workshop) as possible. Think long and hard about the impact you can have, and let us all aim for the maximum that will create meaningful and long-lasting change,” she urged the educators.

The Book Merchant Limited has a longstanding history of investing in the capacity building of educators, and teaching quality through the provision of professional development resources and training and development programmes across the Caribbean.

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