'Government learning along the way'

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Monday | August 13, 2007

Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson has sought to explain why her party has not achieved 100 per cent literacy by this year, as outlined in its 2002 manifesto.

In its party manifesto, launched on Thursday, the governing People's National Party (PNP) said it would implement a national remediation programme to achieve 100 per cent literacy in five years.

"Education is a thing that you learn more as you go along," Henry-Wilson told a Gleaner Editors' forum, held on Friday at the newspaper's North Street, central Kingston head offices.

According to Henry-Wilson, the Foundation of International Self-Help (FISH) has found that a large number of children are having problems with their sight.

FISH revealed to The Gleaner last month that some 29 per cent of the children who participated in its pilot project had sight problems. The ministry has conceded that this has impacted on literacy.

"There are children who you can read to, and who can understand, but can't understand by reading - it's a development in their brain that's different," she told the forum.

To this end, Henry-Wilson said teachers have been given the skill to assess threshold recognition and refer students to special educators. She added that 130 of them have been placed in schools this year plus 50 literacy specialists