The Minister for Education, Octavia Alfred, lamented that children no longer read books for enlightenment the way adults did in their younger days. Speaking to students who recently completed the G6NA examination at the Public Service Union Building on Monday, Alfred said children fail to imbibe the reading culture because their parents do not read.
The minister said that competence in reading is essential to passing examinations, and that children should gain mastery at reading from very tender ages. According to her, families should revive the reading culture so that everyone is able to read to pass examinations. She made it clear that “I am almost at the point of saying [that] nobody reads [again and] that frightens me.”
The minister said that data generated by the Ministry of Education shows that students do better at academic assessments when they gain reading competence by the age of three. She added that pupils who have not acquired considerable reading skills by age eight need special intervention to enable them read recommended books.
If we continue to be involved in their (children’s) school life, they excel naturally. We strongly believe that if the level of parental interest at these periods [is] the same interest all through the child’s school life…we are confident that we will witness a significant improvement in students’ performance.
Hon. Octavia Alfred, Minister of Education
Drawing from the experiences garnered during the COVID-19 pandemic, Alfred said technology plays a vital role in students’ learning and assessments. She stated that students relied on digital tablets and online resources such as Google Classrooms to complete homeworks during the lockdown, and that such learning techniques should not be discarded after the expiration of the pandemic.
According to the education ministry, a total of 872 students (467 boys and 405 girls) sat for the G6NA examination across 63 centres across Dominica. Furthermore, 79 students won scholarship awards and 98 were given bursaries for their performance in the examination.
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