NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin said yesterday that a survey revealed that nearly 50 percent of students who were not attending classes regularly were unable to sign on to the Ministry’s learning management system (LMS).
Hanna Martin made the revelation in Parliament yesterday while making her contribution to the budget debate noted that that the system has allowed the Ministry to identify those students who during the COVID-19 shutdowns and still today have “fallen off the radar” and have not attended classes in some cases for more than two years.
“While the response and efficient implementation of the Bahamas Education Learning Management System has been proficient and largely successful it was found that while classes were being offered 100 percent virtually or in hybrid mode that thousands of children for unclear reasons were either not accessing the system or logging on infrequently and were effectively not in attendance at school for very extended periods,” said Hanna Martin.
She added: “We wanted to understand precisely what issues were impacting this state of affairs and were proving to be barriers to students accessing the system. We commissioned a survey by the Department of Statistics of infrequent and non users of the LMS .
“The study disclosed that almost one half of the young people surveyed who were not attending classes regularly (47 percent) were unable to sign on to the Ministry’s LMS or were experiencing chronic challenges. This statistic gave credibility to widespread feedback from teachers and students, many of whom expressed difficulty and frustration and this survey subsequently informed the rationale for renewed approach to the system.”
Hanna Martin said that the Ministry of Education is now seeking to build on the foundation already established by creating a solution which will generate greater ease of access for students, and which will prove to be more user friendly for teacher and student and provide enhanced capacity for the delivery of education.
“The phenomenon of significant numbers of children dropping out of school has seemed from what I have been advised to be a chronic issue in this country for many years. A goal has been set for the Education Priority in the first instance, to increase attendance rate to 95 percent for public school students by December 2022.
“What we are now facing, however, in terms of the alarming numbers of children and young people to whom I have previously referred numbering in the thousands who have effectively dropped out of school during the pandemic and have not returned has taken us well beyond what has been described as a previous “chronic norm,” said Hanna Martin.
She continued: “What we are seeing now in terms of the sheer volume of children missing from school is a crisis and an emergency and is a matter of grave concern to the Ministry and to the government and to the nation.”
Hanna Martin said that a National Task Force has been established to reach and support every child who is experiencing challenges.
“There continues, however, to be thousands of children and young people who have not returned to school. Going forward, however, we will not accept a state of affairs where school aged children are engaging in truancy, the so- called chronic norm and in this regard we recently advertised in daily publications for the recruitment of additional Attendance Officers who will work with the schools, parents, school boards, police, urban renewal and social services.
“We will form an army to get children back in school and with regular attendance and punctuality,” she said.
