REID URGES TEACHERS TO CUSTOMISE LEARNING TO MEET STUDENTS NEEDS

ST JAMES , Jamaica — Teachers must customise lessons to meet the individual needs and learning styles of students, says Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid.

“Our children have different learning styles. Not all our children will achieve the same level of performance at the same time… so within our classes, we must have diversity,” he noted.

“As that master teacher, you are still required to find out how you are going to try to be very prescriptive, having done the diagnosis to understand what the learning styles are, the levels of strength and weaknesses of our students in our classes, and how we are going to customise (lessons) to reach every learner,” he added.

Reid was speaking at a sensitisation session with primary-school teachers at the West Jamaica Conference Centre in Montego Bay, St James, on Tuesday.

He told the teachers that the ministry will ensure that all primary schools have Internet connection in order for them to access educational resources.

“Ideally, I want your schools to be 'A' schools. I want that, with the click of a button, you can get almost anything you want. As soon as possible, every one of our primary schools should be adequately enabled in terms of the Internet, [and] have school management systems to capture all student data, reports, and lesson plans that can be sent to your heads of departments in soft copy,” he said.

The session gave teachers from western Jamaica an opportunity to be updated about recent developments in the education system, particularly the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations.