STUDENTS in grades one to three are this September expected to be issued a new set of integrated textbooks, to coincide with the full implementation of the Education Ministry’s core curriculum throughout the primary school system.

Text book giants Carlong Publishers Ltd, authors of more than 60 textbooks used in primary and secondary schools across the region, produced five Carlong Primary Integrated Studies (CPIS) textbooks as part of a series of 15 books for students of grades one to three.

The titles are: Getting to Know Me, Getting to Know My Body, Getting to Know My Family, Getting to Know My Home and Getting to Know My School.

Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson, who addressed the launch last Tuesday at Carlong’s head office on Ruthven Rd in Kingston, said the books, which are both thematic and values-based, will greatly support the new integrated curriculum. To this end, she urged teachers to utilise the books instead of using multiple texts that present a burden for students to carry.

The ministry began implementing the new curriculum more than four years ago on a phased basis.

According to Henry-Wilson, the phased introduction allowed for close “seatside” supervision. It also allowed for close monitoring by curriculum officers who visited the schools, “making sure that it was not more chalk and talk, but that there was activity involved and that they (teachers) were using the multiple intelligencies, whether it was music or the drama in the learning process,” the minister added.

According to Carlong, the colourfully illustrated texts were designed to cater to multiple intelligences and to arouse interest in each user. The books were designed to provide comprehensive coverage of the ministry’s curriculum, which requires total integration at several levels, across subject boundaries, between individual lessons and from one term to the next.