MINISTER of Education Dr Dana Morris Dixon has reiterated that come September students in grades one to three in primary schools will have reading on their timetables.

Responding to questions at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing on Wednesday, Morris Dixon noted that reading, which had been taken of the timetables, will be returned.

“Because we cannot afford for our children to leave primary schools not literate, so that’s our policy position,” said Morris Dixon as she admitted that at present there are instances of children entering secondary schools who are not literate.

“And that’s why we have put in some new programmes, we call it the tactical approach where our focused on literacy in those schools that are challenged. Our reading specialists are working with them, we are doing more interventions, and come September…for all of those schools, the children will now get breakfast.

“Because we realise also that for those schools where we are having the challenges, the students tend to come from challenging circumstances and so we have to be intervening on multiple fronts,” added Morris Dixon.

The education minister’s comments at the post-Cabinet media briefing came shortly after she toured Higholborn Street Basic, Franklyn Town Primary, St Michael’s Primary, and Holy Family Primary and Infant schools in Kingston Central.

During the tour Morris Dixon pointed out that the Government continues to implement special initiatives to enhance mathematics and literacy education, with the aim of improving academic performance in inner-city schools.

She said the National School Learning and Intervention Plan (NSLIP) is critical to this mandate.

“Franklyn Town Primary is one of our NSLIP schools; these are schools we are intervening in significantly. At the end of the day, the success of our education system relies on our teachers and principals. We have excellent leadership and when you see results at a school like this, taking students from 20 per cent to over 50 per cent literacy [with even more strategies to improve this figure]… this is what we need, and all of us have to support this,” said Morris Dixon while addressing journalists during the tour.

The education ministry developed the NSLIP to guide curriculum management in schools.

The initiative includes additional teaching time for summer schools and extra lessons/homework programmes, psychosocial and parental engagement, strict attendance monitoring, provision of digital learning resources, a robust accountability framework, and a focus on customised learning based on assessment data.

“I have been able to see our schools working really hard in our inner-city communities. The children are really bright, full of life and brilliant. I saw principals working hard to make sure that they are able to get the maths and literacy training [they need to excel],” Morris Dixon said.