Minister of Education Dana Morris Dixon said governance and the focus the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC) has placed on schools is extremely important.

She stated that strong schools do not exist without strong leadership, and so the boards and principals are important.

“So when you see some of what we are doing, it is because we want to strengthen the governance framework. You’re going to see a lot more of that happening. We’re also looking at our principals, too and the training that a principal needs,” she said.

Dixon also expressed that the principal’s role is very big, as they also act as financial managers in many of the schools. “They’re strategists, and so we have to train them, and we’ve actually been doing some changes to the legislation to embed the National College for Educational Leadership (NCEL) and NCEL’s training for the principals, and that you will see going to parliament very soon.”

Furthermore, the minister stated that technology is going to be a key to bridging the gap between those schools that do well and those that don’t. “Our ultimate dream is for every school to be a great school. Not just having a few good ones that everybody is competing for, but we want to have every school be a good school, and technology is central to that. So rolling out the internet in schools is very important, and we’re continuing to roll it out, and we’re moving to Wi-Fi so that all the students on the compound can have access to the internet as we roll out some of the solutions we have, for example, using AI.

“In addition to that, another 2,000 smart boards are being ordered, and e-Learning is about to go to procurement for that, so that’s even going to change the landscape of our schools even more,” she continued.

The Education Management Information System (EMIS) will be another important initiative in terms of tracking students’ performance.

“When the ministry can see remotely which schools have a problem with students attendance, that is a game changer. When you can see what’s happening with the grades and the performance at the ministry, that changes your interventions and how you do interventions. That information is so vital, and that was a key recommendation of the Patterson report.”

Teachers will also now use AI to mark, particularly Eagle Eye, which will assist them in completing tasks efficiently and effectively. “One of the worst parts of the job is having to sit and mark, and so now we have programmes where we’re testing in our schools where we use technology to assist our teachers to do the marking.

Minister Dixon said another priority of the ministry is improving students’ literacy and numeracy skills by ensuring that it is timetabled. “I’ve also spoken a lot about literacy and literacy being central. The foundation is key literacy and numeracy, and so I’m very happy that the ministry has heard, and the ministry is now timetabling reading. Many people wouldn’t even realise that it wasn’t timetabled, but now it is timetabled because we are serious about stemming this literacy challenge that we have in our schools, and there’s much more that we’re doing in that respect.

“Early Childhood Education is also my other focus again, starting with the foundation, and there are scholarships that are available for professionals in this area. Please take up those scholarships. We want to enhance learning at the early childhood level, and we are putting the money there, and so if you’re interested in these scholarships, please go on the ministry website and please apply for them,” she continued.