Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 06, 2017 (SKNIS): The Ministry of Education has embarked on a new initiative where National Report Cards were introduced for use in the primary schools as a means of having standardization across all levels.
Chief Education Officer (CEO) in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Tricia Esdaille, said that the idea of having a National Report Card was bound to happen and it began as part of her work while she served as a Senior Education Officer.
“We were looking at the educational experience of students across the primary school sector and examining end of term test and the various report cards because we were looking at assessment and the forms of assessment used in primary school,” she said, noting that they discovered a high degree of variability from school to school. “Now if we were a larger country with large districts and counties that would be understandable. However, being that we are such a small country it was not ideal that the experience of a child living in Cayon should their family choose to move to Sandy Point be so dramatically different.”
Dr. Esdaille noted that being in a public education system there should be some level of standards across the system “with respect to how” student achievements are reported “and the format in which teachers begin to structure assessment throughout the term and during the end of term period”.
“To counter the high degree of variability, we came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a common template. It meant that for a child and for that child’s family, as they move… that it meant there was a degree of consistency from school to school in how you would be assessed,” said the CEO. “An A is an A everywhere. The components for Language Arts are the same everywhere… and so the introduction of the report card was intended to reduce some of that.”
The introduction of the National Report Card was an important milestone in the Ministry of Education’s Reform Process. In December 2016, the National Student Progress Report Booklet was presented to head teachers of the various public primary schools in the Federation. The booklet will service the above mentioned schools on both islands and private primary schools are also welcome to participate.
