THE imposition of literacy standards for educators is one of the items at the top of the to-do list for Jamaica’s new literacy co-ordinator André Hill.

Hill, 32, who took up the position at the Caenwood Centre of the Ministry of Education on September 1, said this would involve focusing on the knowledge and skills that teachers at varying levels of the education system need to possess and display, in an effort to reach the targeted 100 per cent literacy by 2015 — up from the current 67 per cent.

“This is important because when standards of operations are established, people will have clearly defined goals; people will understand what is required of them and will be led to measure their practices against those established standards. The standards basically are to ensure quality services at the various levels of the system,” he told Career & Education, adding that the standards will be applicable to not only teachers ,but also to school administrators and education officers, in addition to regional literacy co-ordinators.

Next on his list of things to get done, Hill noted, is the development of the literacy skills of scholboys. As things currently stand, he said, boys continue to lag behind girls in national assessments, including the Grade Four Literacy Test.

“This means that a crucial focus has to be extended to the male students of the Jamaican education system and as national literacy co-ordinator I will be working especially on that with the help of my team members,” said Hill, who holds a PhD in education from the University of Sheffield in the UK, a master’s in literacy and language arts from the Connecticut State University in the US and a first degree in guidance and counselling from the International University of the Caribbean.

“The strategy that we are going to be employing in this regard will be based on current research in pedagogy and how boys learn. We are going to implement certain programmes that will specifically speak to the psychological, educational and social needs of boys and this means that the work will have to be carefully expanded and extended across all regions and in the independent schools across the regions,” added the Anchovy High School past student, who also has a teaching diploma in English language, English literature and social studies.

At the same time, Hill has encouraged teachers to pay more attention to prevention and intervention rather than remediation, in their efforts to raise literacy levels.

“We will have fewer children failing the Grade Four Literacy Test when they should be passing, and the teachers’ job will be less complicated,” he noted.

Hill — who comes to the post having served as literacy co-ordinator for Region Four (St James, Hanover and Westmoreland) — also plans to ramp up their engagement with parents and the wider community.

He said that research has shown that when children have parents and other family members who are actively involved in their learning and in their school life, they tend to perform better.

“Literacy is not something that begins in the school, it is something that begins in the home and is extended to the school and further supported by the community; so if we all put our hearts, our interests, our energies, our resources into making every child literate in Jamaica, I believe that we can meet our target of 100 per cent literacy by 2015,” he said.

As such, Hill said he and his team would seek to engage parents by having a literacy specialist at every parent-teacher association meeting where they will be exposed to practical training in basic literacy and general educational skills to support their children at home.

“The goal is to ensure that the schools continue to do what they are mandated to do and that the home and, by extension, the community support the work of the classroom and the other partners in the education system,” he said.

Hill added that there are sufficient literacy specialists to carry out this task — 16 are assigned to the Ministry of Education and 15 to the Alternative Secondary Education Transition Programme. There are also 10 master teachers — trained in literacy and language — who are employed to select schools and who lend support to others within certain geographical areas.

He also intends to pay special attention to the quality of instruction within the context of the regular classroom.

“What I am going to make a priority is extending support to the teachers in helping them in whatever way is possible to galvanise core instruction focus in the context of their classroom,” he said. “When children have caring teachers and other supporters, they tend to do much better and I will be working closely along with my team members to help teachers better concentrate their skills, their talents and their other personal resources to ensure that we provide our children with the best social environment possible so that learning can be improved.”

Meanwhile, Hill said he is humbled by the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of Jamaica’s children.

“I want to be able to help every girl and every boy in this nation to realise the joy of reading and to develop their skills and their capacity in reading,” said the man who admits to having a library of more than 3,000 books.