KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid, says teachers need to use their regular contact with students as research material to address issues in the system.

Addressing a research symposium for students pursuing the master’s degree, at The Mico University College, in St Andrew, on Wednesday, Reid said the classroom experience requires teachers to observe a lot and experiment, so as part of their appraisal of students’ accomplishments they must determine what works and be in a position to make adjustments for better results.

“When you are doing evaluation of the lesson, you are evaluating the students’ achievement and whether or not you have achieved your objective,” the minister noted.

He added that even when teachers are doing formative assessments of students, they have to reach a point where they decide, on evidence, whether teaching occurred and whether the students had mastered the content.

If a perfect success score was achieved, according to Reid, the teachers can go to the next assignment, and where most of the students fail to do well in the particular lesson, pertinent questions must be asked, and the findings are part of the way forward to help the learners.

“What was the reason why the student didn’t learn? That data/research is going to inform how you are going to utilise (it) to ensure that every child learns and achieves,” he told his audience.

The minister said he would like to see the education system reach a standard where all teachers attain at least a master’s degree and also have the capacity to diagnose the readiness of children, their learning styles, and structure lessons to reach them, so that every student can realise his or her potential.