Guidelines for the Revised Operations of Selected Secondary Schools, September 2022-27
Date
2022-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago
Abstract
Schools were closed in March 2020, due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were engaged in online schooling in their homes. Most students only returned to physical school in April 2022. Though online schooling provided a critical level of educational continuity, it is globally recognised that it is not a substitute for face-to-face school, especially for children at the early childhood and primary levels. One of the most deleterious effects of prolonged school closure is the learning loss experienced by students. The Curriculum Planning and Development Division (CPDD) of the Ministry of Education (MOE) provided a Diagnostic Test for administration by teachers in Mathematics and English Language Arts in October 2021. The results showed clear learning gaps. For remediation purposes, teachers were provided with the key learning objectives for each subject at all levels, along with recommendations for closing the students' learning gaps. An analysis of the results of the 2022 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) showed a marked decrease in student achievement at the higher proficiency levels of over 90% and over 50%. However, there was a marked increase in students achieving less than 30%. This general decrease in performance is similar to global predictions of the learning loss and decreased performance of students associated with physical school closure.
Description
Table of Contents
Keywords
school guidelines, school operations, secondary school, learning loss, COVID-19, pandemic