Press Release
Education Minister Lauds EEH for Promoting Excellence in Literacy and Numeracy
Kingston |
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Expanding Educational Horizons Project
The Hon. Andrew Holness, Minister of Education, receives an Alpha Smart demonstration from these students.
Education Minister Andrew Holness has praised the Expanding Educational Horizons (EEH) project for its concerted efforts over the past four years to boost numeracy and literacy standards in select primary schools across the country.
Mr. Holness was speaking at the Hilton Kingston Hotel at the recent EEH close of project symposium and exhibition. The EEH is a joint initiative between the Jamaica and United States Governments in the key areas of literacy, numeracy and educational technology. The four-year project (2005-2009), supported by the Ministry of Education and Youth (MOEY) and USAID, benefits approximately 30,000 students from 71 primary schools and 2,000 out-of- school youths from six Jamaican NGOs.
The Education Minister highlighted two of the major successes of the project – the development of the Grade Four Numeracy Test, which is now being used islandwide, and the web-based version of the Jamaica School Administrative Software (JSAS), which will allow school administrators access to real time data to drive improvements in performance.
Deputy Director of the Office of Sustainable Development of USAID, Sean Osner, also addressed the symposium and he expressed satisfaction with the numerous achievements of the EEH.
Mr. Osner noted that the EEH project was a good platform for greater accountability and performance management in the primary education system. He also had high praise for the unique gender component of the EEH project, because of its special emphasis on techniques to enhance the learning process for boys. He also commended the participating schools, as over 90 percent of them had achieved the required standards of improvement in numeracy and literacy.
Project schools staged a high-quality exposition with displays in all the major project components: literacy, numeracy, technology, school management, gender, stakeholder support, gender and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Some of the more popular presentations included the use of electronic portfolios to support the continuous assessment of reading fluency; creating a digital story; and using interactive websites for literacy and numeracy enhancement.