Dear Editor,

So glad to read the Observer’s excellent article on the prime minister’s decision to homeschool his sons to give them “an individualised learning option”.

Recently the education minister of Canada’s British Columbia province, George Abbott, announced that BC students would be encouraged to take their smartphones and digital tablets to class to keep them tech savvy, as part of a new programme “to transform a system of learning that is still rooted in a previous century” and establish personalised learning plans for every student, to “give parents more choices about what, how, when and where their child learns”.

Mr Abbott said that while the school curriculum would continue to focus on basic core skills, it would now emphasise critical thinking, insight and teamwork, saying many of the opportunities and jobs students were being prepared for don’t exist today. He said that to make way for individualised learning plans, the province would trim its standard curriculum requirements, leaving students with more free time to follow areas of study that interest them. He said that flexibility would mean more learning outside the classroom, with access to technology for both students and education “better preparing students to thrive in an increasingly digital world”.

It seems that by choosing to homeschool his sons, the Jamaican education minister has given his children a leap forward into the 21st century as his Canadian counterpart has, and I hope he works now to integrate homeschooling options into the Jamaican system.

Kudos to Kamau Mahakoe of Portmore, St Catherine, for the wonderful achievements of homeschooling her three children.

Barbara Blake Hannah

PO Box 727

Kingston 6