KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The Ministry of Education is focus on implementing the recommendations in the 2015 National Education Inspectorate (NEI) report.

This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid, in a message read by Director of Corporate Communication in the Ministry, Byron Buckley,  during the opening ceremony for the Mico University College’s Research Day at the institution’s premises in Kingston yesterday.

The 2015 NEI report, which assessed the operation of 953 primary and secondary schools, found gaps in various areas of the system, including student performance.

Reid said the Ministry will be providing increased oversight of school operations through the Department of School Services (DSS), which will become operational at the start of the new financial year.

“Additional resources will also be targeted at the primary level,” he informed.

He also said that through the operation of the DSS and other initiatives, several recommendations from the NEI report will be addressed.

These include: national school improvement efforts, which will place emphasis on student learning, increased monitoring, and a national mandate to ensure the use of data to drive school improvement planning.

He also noted that boards of management will be empowered to set targets to improve student performance, and hold principal and staff accountable for student outcome.

Senator Reid said the Ministry is particularly pleased that the deliberations at Mico Research Day conference will be based on the findings of the NEI report.

“The Ministry of Education endorses the goals of the conference, which include proposing short, medium, and long-term initiatives to address the challenges, and to share the current trends in effective teaching at the pre-tertiary phase of education,” he said.

The Mico University College Research Day is being staged under the theme: ‘Vision 2030 and Beyond: The Implications of the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) Report’.