While some of the nation's children returned to the classrooms in recent days, today marks the formal start of the school year for the public school system and some private schools. By next week, it will be back to school for the remainder of students.

The start of the school year is always a time of reflection, assessment and renewed optimism, even with the difficulties that continue to plague the education system in The Bahamas.

Though education officials traditionally provide a report on national exam results in August, the month will end without any such report being given. The education minister said the ministry intends to do so in a few days.

Last year's results once again reflected significant challenges in education attainment among great numbers of students. Only 12.9 percent or 633 of the 4,906 candidates who sat the Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) examinations in 2022 received a C or higher in at least five subjects.

This continued a trend of worrisome results that has long existed, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fallout from the pandemic still reverberates, and it could be quite some time before we begin to feel the full impact of the learning loss that many suffered as a result of schools being closed to in-person instruction.

This fallout does not just impact families but the wider community, with grave implications for the job market, the national economy and our social fabric.

In her back to school address last night, Minister of Education Glenys Hanna Martin again highlighted this issue.

Hanna Martin noted that all of the research globally, in both developed and developing countries, has shown massive learning loss suffered by students at all levels, but with children from poorer communities being hardest hit.

"It was mandatory that The Bahamas have a full understanding of how our own children and young people have been affected so as to stave off what has been forecasted as being potentially catastrophic to many young people all over the world and to their respective countries," she said.

"While we understood and greatly appreciated that individual teachers in the classrooms nationwide moved immediately (and in this they are to be commended) to making their own assessments of the students in their classes, it was clear there was a need to conduct universal testing with standardized measures in order to reach a full appreciation of the nature and extent of the impact on our students."

Approximately 40,000 plus children at all levels including pre-primary and in every public school in the nation were tested, the minster said.

"This testing has yielded empirical data which every teacher can access for every child in his or her class.
The results of the universal standardized testing have revealed that nationally 44 percent of our students require intervention.

"This is a significant finding which requires intense and sustained interventions for all students affected. Remediation efforts by the ministry started as early as May of this year in some schools, with ongoing assessments being completed to mitigate gaps and foster solutions."

The findings are indeed stunning and worrying.

The minister advised that the Ministry of Education will provide personalized, self-paced, targeted support to address the learning gaps and will also provide training for parents so they can assist children at home.

Addressing learning loss and other issues plaguing the education system will indeed require greater effort from parents and greater resources for our schools.

We previously applauded the ministry's establishment of a Teacher Morale Committee, which undertook a study of factors that impact teacher morale. We hope continued focus will remain on this issue given the crucial role teachers play in the delivery of education.

We were also pleased at the minister's announcement that her ministry is bringing equitable focus to children with special needs.

This year, the ministry has designated classrooms in schools nationwide for the integration of children with special needs, according to Hanna Martin, who announced that 22 new special education teachers have been recruited and are now being posted in schools throughout the country. An additional 14 teachers are near completion of the Master's Degree program in special education with Barry University as a result of an MOU between the ministry and that university.

These are positive developments though there will remain a need for even greater human resources in the public system.

As education ministry officials, school administrators, teachers, parents and students face the challenges head on, we hope for a productive year for all and urge ongoing focus on fostering improved educational outcomes.

The post A new school year  appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

The post A new school year  appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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