Students preparing to sit the 2023 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations will now have access to free online one-on-one and group tutoring sessions courtesy of The SMC Group.

SMC Teach, the free on-demand tutoring programme organized by the marketing and communications agency, The SMC Group has announced its return.

SMC Teach was launched in the summer of 2020 to provide individualized tutoring to students whose learning had been adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision to pivot to examination preparation, according to SMC Group Chief Executive Officer Maurice Hamilton, was made to ensure that the programme continues to provide support to the students who needed it the most. 

“The aim of the SMC Teach programme has always been to plug the learning gap wherever it may be. At the time of its launch in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in significant learning loss for many students and studies showed that one-on-one tutoring could prove critical to helping students get back on track,” Hamilton said.

He continued, “What we are seeing now and certainly from the most recent CSEC results is that the ‘COVID slide’ has persisted and pandemic learning gaps remain. This has led to the decision to pivot the programme to now providing online one-on-one and group tutoring for students as they prepare for their upcoming exams.”

Since 2020, the annual programme has provided more than 2000 hours of individualized tutoring for students in Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.

SMC Teach also provides an opportunity for Jamaican teachers to supplement their incomes by providing online tutoring. The 2022 programme saw more than a dozen Jamaican teachers providing up to two hours of tutoring to each student weekly.

Teachers will work with each student to evaluate the areas that they may be struggling in to develop tutoring plans designed to fit their specific needs. The subject areas to be covered are Mathematics, English Language, English Literature, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

“Our goal is to offer 2 hours of tutoring per week to up to 300 students for the next two months. In those sessions, they will be able to go over anything they may have missed or haven’t fully grasped as they prepare for their examinations,” Hamilton said.

The programme is open to students in Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and The United Kingdom with classes set to begin on April 1st.

Parents and students who need additional one on one support are encouraged to apply via the SMC Teach website at www.smcteach.com. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Teachers looking to be a part of the programme can send their resumes [email protected] opens today, Monday, March 27, 2023.