Truancy by teachers cause for concern – Charles

Truancy by teachers is one of the main concerns of the Ministry of Education.

This disclosure was made by parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Education Deborah Charles, as she made her contribution to the debate on the 2016 Budget in the House of Assembly last week Tuesday.{{more}}

“The other thing in education that bothers us is in the Ministry is truancy by teachers.

“Mr Speaker, we can’t give our students the virtue of discipline; we can’t teach them to be punctual, if every day we are late,” Charles stated.

Additionally, she noted that the same criticisms can be said about parliamentarians, especially those in opposition.

“And it goes for us as parliamentarians as well and that’s why it’s a worry that the Opposition isn’t here; they are not late, they are absent …”

Charles said that she views the Opposition’s absence from the sitting of Parliament as nothing but disrespect.

“They have no respect for the House; they have no respect for the Speaker; they have no respect for the Leader of the House and it is time for the history of this House that something is done about the way the Opposition behaves in the house,” she stated.

She noted also that literacy among students is another area in which there is room for improvement.

“Mr Speaker, we have been doing well in education, but there is room for improvement and in one of the areas where we need to improve is in our literacy, and again I speak passionately of this, coming out of the school system.”

The educator encouraged teachers to teach children to be good readers and also challenged students to reach as much and as often as possible.

However, she stated that she is aware that in many households, books are scarce commodities.

“But…many of our schools have books; we can encourage them to read the books that are there,” Charles stated passionately.

She noted that during a visit to the primary schools with Minister of Education St Clair Prince, they noted that the literacy rate in schools is below average.

“We would have seen the way literacy is being taught in some cases or the way it is not taught; it’s a burden for me…I am burdened by it.

“I think Minister Prince is also burdened by the fact that we have schools in which only 20 per cent of the students are reading at their age levels; it cannot be right,” Charles added. (CM)