Truancy by teachers cause for concern – Charles
Truancy by teachers is one of the main concerns of the Ministry of Education.
This disclosure was made by parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Education Deborah Charles, as she made her contribution to the debate on the 2016 Budget in the House of Assembly last week Tuesday.{{more}}
âThe other thing in education that bothers us is in the Ministry is truancy by teachers.
âMr Speaker, we canât give our students the virtue of discipline; we canât teach them to be punctual, if every day we are late,â Charles stated.
Additionally, she noted that the same criticisms can be said about parliamentarians, especially those in opposition.
âAnd it goes for us as parliamentarians as well and thatâs why itâs a worry that the Opposition isnât here; they are not late, they are absent â¦â
Charles said that she views the Oppositionâs absence from the sitting of Parliament as nothing but disrespect.
âThey have no respect for the House; they have no respect for the Speaker; they have no respect for the Leader of the House and it is time for the history of this House that something is done about the way the Opposition behaves in the house,â she stated.
She noted also that literacy among students is another area in which there is room for improvement.
âMr Speaker, we have been doing well in education, but there is room for improvement and in one of the areas where we need to improve is in our literacy, and again I speak passionately of this, coming out of the school system.â
The educator encouraged teachers to teach children to be good readers and also challenged students to reach as much and as often as possible.
However, she stated that she is aware that in many households, books are scarce commodities.
âButâ¦many of our schools have books; we can encourage them to read the books that are there,â Charles stated passionately.
She noted that during a visit to the primary schools with Minister of Education St Clair Prince, they noted that the literacy rate in schools is below average.
âWe would have seen the way literacy is being taught in some cases or the way it is not taught; itâs a burden for meâ¦I am burdened by it.
âI think Minister Prince is also burdened by the fact that we have schools in which only 20 per cent of the students are reading at their age levels; it cannot be right,â Charles added. (CM)
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