Education ministry plans to have more History, Literature taught in schools

Plans are afoot by the Ministry of Education to have more History and Literature taught in schools.{{more}}

Not only that, but the shake-up is also geared at ensuring that more students write these subjects at the CSEC/CAPE levels.

Speaking on October 17, at the opening of 2nd Annual Literary Fair put on by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, in collaboration with the Vincentian Association of Artists, Writers and Producers, chief education officer Lou-Anne Gilchrist, said, “If we do not study Literature and History, we lose ourselves.”

According to Gilchrist, within the primary schools, there needs to be greater focus on poetry and reading for appreciation.

She added that students should be encouraged to read for a variety of purposes and asked to report on what they have read as a means of stimulating thought and giving them the opportunity to evaluate that which they have read.

“They (students) must at all times be given the opportunity to develop and become confident readers and partake independently of the vast body of knowledge,”” Gilchrist said.

The chief education officer also mentioned the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment, for which grade six students are being prepared, which she said is designed to fulfil the functions she mentioned earlier.

It is her dream that one day, St Vincent and the Grenadines will boast of being the homeland of a nobel laureate for Literature.

“We want our heritage, our Vincentianness to be recorded in the annals of time. We want our language to be recorded as the expression of ourselves and existence,” she added. (KW)