Maths, reading coaches for students

Chief Secretary and Secretary of Education, Innovation, and Energy, Kelvin Charles, has indicated that the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is starting an Instructional Coaches Programme to help improve facilitate improvements in the island’s educational system, especially at the primary school level.

“There were too many students who were underperforming with respect to literacy and numeracy. This was underscored by the kind of results we would have gotten from the SEA exam,” Charles explained at last Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex, Calder Hall.

“We will engage the services of trained educators to work with both teachers and students of the primary school, to the extent that there are gaps in the knowledge base of the students or even of the teachers, these coaches will work with both teachers and students to treat with any deficiency,” he said.

Six reading coaches and six mathematics coaches will he hired to improve the levels of numeracy and literacy. Charles said 35 persons applied for the positions and appointments “are expected to be made on or before October 2.”

And as the new school term/year starts today, Charles also

Had completed their projects by last Wednesday, and that others were expected to be completed by last Friday.

“What they have suggested, for all intent and purposes, that the reopening of school ought to be a very smooth one,” he said.

He also said expansion projects at the Hope Anglican, Whim Anglican, Patience Hill and Signal Hill primary schools were expected to be completed by the end of September.

“Both Signal Hill and Whim Primary are 80 percent completed, Hope Anglican is about 70 percent completed and Patience Hill is about 40 percent complete,” he reported.