Help us help your kids Education ministry pleads for more parental support

"As a country we have to come on board collectively; the teachers, the ministry, the parents, the general community. All of us must come on board to ensure that our students improve," said McLean, who was a guest of the Observer Press Club on Thursday.McLean, citing delinquent parenting, violence, inadequate resources, and shoddy registration and assessment, as some of the challenges to primary education, said the ministry has made strides in addressing these issues."What is different now is that we are identifying where the gaps and challenges are, and we are saying to the Jamaican public 'come on board with us"," she said.Education Minister Andrew Holness, since his appointment in 2007, has repeatedly threatened to have delinquent parents arrested and charged, noting that parental neglect is contributing to poor student attendance.According to the Child Care and Protection Act, it is parents' duty to ensure that all children between the ages of four and 16 are registered and are attending school.Holness said recently that the Government is prepared to uphold such regulations, noting that "there are laws against delinquent parenting and where we identify breaches, we intend to enforce the law."In the meantime, McLean says measures have been implemented to ensure that persons working within the education system are also made accountable for the performance of the students under their tutelage."There is the accountability matrix which is designed to ensure that every single person within the system knows where they are accountable and what they are accountable for. It starts at the minister and goes right down to the class teacher," said McLean, noting that the matrix features set targets, which school boards must contractually agree to."So the Grade Four Literacy Test which will be done next year, if they (administrators) have not achieved the targets then that is where we will have to take action," said McLean.Director of communication at the MOE, Colin Blair, said that while not all aspects of the accountability matrix system have been fully implemented, the existing framework will still assist in ensuring that school administrators adhere to and achieve their targets."It has been implemented but not all elements will come on stream at the same time. We are watching it over three years, looking at how it works from step to step," said Blair."Suppose we say to a school that their target is seven per cent and by the third year they haven't realised that target, then some action would have to be taken," he said."We wouldn't take action in the first year or second year. That will have to be done in the third year," he said, in reference to the upcoming academic year.McLean, however, is hoping not to have to resort to sanctions but to improve the country's education system by encouraging co-operation between school and community, and increasing parents' awareness about the various strategies being undertaken by the ministry.One such strategy is the implementation of the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP), which is designed to assist 6,200 children who have completed primary school without being certified literate by mastery of the Grade Four Literacy Test (GFLT) and, therefore, cannot move on to traditional high schools.The ASTEP programme, which will run for two years, will offer the students individual attention at 258 centres islandwide. Students will be placed in classrooms with a maximum capacity of 25, and taught by specialists.The programme is scheduled to formally begin in September and will require strong support from parents, who are expected to work in tandem with their children and their teachers, said McLean.She said, however, that more parents should get involved in their children's education from the preliminary stages, citing the Grade One Individual Learning Profile as a starting point."The profile is done in collaboration with the parents; it's not only the teachers who take the child. It is from here that the parents and the teacher will understand what needs to be worked on, and so collectively, we can track the improvement of the student.""You (parents) don't have to be able to read and write to take that active interest in your child," McLean continued, asking church leaders to assist in encouraging parents to play their part.