Crawford: Put more focus on learning recovery

Opposition Spokesman on Education Damion Crawford says the national conversation following Hurricane Melissa is missing the mark, remaining fixated on learning loss while largely ignoring the urgent need for learning recovery.

Crawford, who is also an opposition senator, made the point during an address to the Rotary Club of Kingston yesterday under the theme ‘Education Under Pressure: Hurricane Melissa, System Resilience, Readiness for External Examinations’.

“After learning loss, there is a need for a plan for recovery. Recovery might be repeating a grade, recovery might be a summer semester, recovery might be scaling down to focus, for example, in our primary schools ... on being rounded as versus focused on being literate and numerate.

“And then recovery might be to professionalise through vocation studies to immediate intervene to have vocational training within the high schools so they can leave with a profession,” Crawford said.

Crawford told the audience he had read that all 1,010 schools across the island are now open. While that headline sounds reassuring, he warned that the reality on the ground tells a different story.

“Some of them are open for a particular number of hours because what, there is no light and because the JPS (Jamaica Public Service) don’t reach to some of those places yet … . All of that suggest learning loss. If it was efficient and effective for a child to learn in three days [per week], we wouldn’t have them for five. In fact, if you ask many of our principals, five days are not even enough based on where these children are,” Crawford argued.

He cautioned that unless learning loss is urgently addressed and replaced with a structured recovery strategy, the country risks long-term consequences.

If learning loss is not brought to an end and a process of learning recovery begins, there will be fewer people who are productive, efficient and able to contribute meaningfully to the workforce, he reasoned.

“It, therefore, is imperative upon us not to create a narrative but to build a nation by ensuring that education become a priority for investment,” Crawford said.

He argued that both the public and private sectors must speak with one voice in support of increased and sustained funding for education.

All schools reopened

Meanwhile, Chief Education Officer Terry-Ann Thomas-Gayle confirmed at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday that all 1,010 schools have reopened following Hurricane Melissa. She said all 446 schools in the three affected regions are also operational.

These include Region Three (St Ann and Trelawny), Region Four (Hanover, St James and Westmoreland) and region five (Manchester and St Elizabeth). In Region Three, 109 schools have returned to face-to-face classes, while 14 are operating on a rotational schedule. In RegionFour, 127 schools are face-to-face and 37 are on rotation, while region five has 135 schools operating face-to-face and seven on rotation.

Thomas-Gayle said infrastructure damage, electricity restoration and water tank replacement remain key challenges the ministry is working to address.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com