A study containing over 2,000 teachers island-wide, shows that online learning is still a challenge.
According to the President of the Jamaica Teacher’s Association (JTA), Jasford Gabriel, only one-third of Jamaica’s students are accessing online classes.
These issues of connectivity he says, could have been predicted from the start.
Of the 2,100 teachers in the study sample, only 3 per cent of them accounted for all their students online and 33 per cent were able to locate most of their students.
“It’s something that we have to find a quick fix to in the short term, in terms of improving that; maybe through different hotspots and more players in the game…even when we go blended…we will still need connectivity in all the spaces across the country, so that none of our children are left behind, ” Gabriel said.
Gabriel adds that students have not yet received tablets from the Ministry of Education which makes the process even more difficult.
In addition, he says some tablets that were negotiated for teachers through the Jamaica Teacher’s Association still have not been received. He says these were negotiated for in 2017 and signed off on in 2018, making the wait time approximately two years.
Also, the study showed that 64 per cent of the teachers indicated that they had challenges as it relates to parental supervision and unruly students.
The JTA President also commented on schools that are having face to face classes.
He says, “if it is that a spread is created even among school aged children then it is going to…delay anything that is near normal.”
CVM LIVE’s Robian Williams brings this story:
