I was thinking about the next course that we have to do in the upcoming semester on leadership in reading. I was also of the opinion how timely and needed this course would be in light of the need for help like this for many teachers. Many of the blog posts I have read , my colleagues have lamented about having floundered in the deep for years not knowing how to give their students the kind of help that they needed. Even at present the Ministry has not renewed the contract of several reading teachers who were doing remedial work with our secondary school students. So for two terms now our students have been without the much needed intervention that they are in dire need of. I look forward to doing whatever is needed of this course to help teachers in my school.
However I pause to wonder again if after we've finished this programme, if we would be treated with the same scant courtesy that remedial teachers were treated. This in light of original plans that the MOE has for us. Remember that other scholarships that were offered in the past, the teachers received two days to attend classes and to do assignments and studies. I have not even been granted a halfday off by my principal. Every single half or whole day we take I'm sure that we have applied for. I shudder to think that somewhere along the line, after we have completed the Med, we'll be parked up in school having to balance our normal teaching time, normal duties and a reading portfolio that our principals and the Ministry would like us to execute all in a days work. Tell mih that yuh don't know how de ministry does operate nah!
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ReplyDeleteJen, I've wondered the same thing and I've heard many students of our M.Ed. group voice their musings. Is the MOE aware that there is a group of teachers at UWI desperately trying to achieve a Master of Education Degree in Reading with the hope of helping the illiteracy problem in our school system? SEMP has been disbanded and the person who was monitoring our group has resigned.
ReplyDeleteThe Minister of Education has expressed his concern about the level of failure at the SEA exam due to illiteracy, yet no mention of what the plans are to deal with this problem. Are we part of the intended solution? What really will be our fate come next July when we complete this degree? Who is going to benefit from what we are so painstakingly learning and practicing? Our class? Our school? Our education district?
I too have my concerns about what's next for us, but believe me, nothing the MOE does or will do in the future will surprise me. They generally embark on programmes without putting plans in place. Remember the advent of universal secondary education in 2000. Remember the model school that was hastily refurbished. What about the teachers for the 1 special students what training did they receive? Come July next year I would be happy to have completed this course and to be in a position to assists the students in my current school if no where else. July next year sounds really good.
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