NCERD improving literacy among students – director

…as 17% of pupils experience reading disorders

The National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), of the Education Ministry, has emphasised that literacy improvement is high on its agenda as statistics show that 17 per cent of students may be experiencing a reading disorder.
Stakeholders in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) have participated in a three-day conference aimed at improving literacy in classrooms.
Regional Literacy Coordinator attached to the Region Six Education Department, Simone Proffit, explained that the objective was to strengthen teachers’ ability to deliver the curriculum.

According to Profitt, the Education Department is seeking to improve students’ performance across the region. “And so we think the best way to do this is by empowering our teachers. Hence, this literacy conference is geared to provide them with the relevant tools that will enable them to do it,” Proffit explained.
She said there are many children in the region with learning difficulties, and need extra support in developing their literacy skills.
“That’s what we are working towards,” she declared.

Upgrading skills
Meanwhile, Director of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Quenita Walrond, explained that such training is vital since, even as educators, monitoring officers or policymakers, they need to keep upgrading their skills.
“Because at the end of the day, as educators, we all should hold as a fundamental belief that learning is a lifelong process, and that we, too, are not exempt from the benefit of further and more improved teaching.”
The director emphasised that literacy improvement is high on the Education Ministry’s agenda. “As a sector, I can say that my colleagues are working very assiduously to ensure that opportunities for literacy development come from both a top-down and bottom-up approach: where we are working at the grassroots level with parents and communities to increase opportunities for reading; where there are more material inputs in terms of the support from our Ministry and Departments of Education to increase the number of books – be it books for reading, information, textbooks, that are available to students and teachers for use. And even from a policy perspective, we now have an entire department that is devoted to improving literacy performance across the country,” she added.
This, she noted, is treasured and held in very high esteem as it relates to what the priorities are for the nation.
Some 100 teachers in Region Six, which include literacy specialists from the primary level, those who teach reading at the secondary level, and the infant field officers for nursery schools in the region, attended the training. Regional Literacy Coordinators from other regions also participated in the conference.
It was disclosed that about 17 per cent of students in the classrooms in Guyana may experience a reading disorder. (G4)