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</div></div></div><span class="gmail-jg-published">Published:<span class="gmail-jg-published-created">Thursday | August 30, 2018 | 12:00 AM</span></span><a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/ana-marie-rodriquez/paul-clarkegleaner-writer" class="gmail-author-term">Paul Clarke/Gleaner Writer</a><div id="gmail-quicktabs-article_image_video" class="gmail-quicktabs-wrapper gmail-quicktabs-style-nostyle gmail-quicktabs-novideo gmail-jquery-once-1-processed"><div id="gmail-quicktabs-container-article_image_video" class="gmail-quicktabs_main gmail-quicktabs-style-nostyle"><div id="gmail-quicktabs-tabpage-article_image_video-0" class="gmail-quicktabs-tabpage"><div class="gmail-block gmail-block-views gmail-block-article-content-block-3 gmail-block-views-article-content-block-3 gmail-odd gmail-block-without-title" id="gmail-block-views-article-content-block-3">
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<div class="gmail-views-field gmail-views-field-field-author"> <div class="gmail-field-content"><a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/authors/ian-allen-0">Ian Allen</a></div> </div>
<div class="gmail-views-field gmail-views-field-field-caption"> <div class="gmail-field-content">Dean-Roy
Bernard (second left), permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Education, Youth and Information, greets some of the Cuban teachers in
Jamaica during the annual orientation for Cuban teachers, held at the
Alhambra Inn on Tuesday.</div> </div></div>
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Making the teaching of a second language compulsory in Jamaican schools
will require a new policy directive, says Dean-Roy Bernard, permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.</p>
<p>
Bernard noted that the ministry is at the review and development stage
of plans to put the necessary infrastructure in place to enable the
policy shift.</p>
<p>
"We cannot make learning a second language compulsory at this time
because the infrastructure has not been built out as yet. We need to
have the teachers in the classrooms; and the curriculum being universal
and standardised across the board, before that is done," Bernard said.</p>
<p>
He was responding to a question at the annual orientation for Cuban
teachers at the Alhambra Inn, St Andrew, on Tuesday, where 24 Cuban
educators were being given an official welcome and introduction into
Jamaica's educational space by the ministry.</p>
<p>
"We are at the policy review and development stage now, and then we
have to look at the resources required to have this become a reality;
but, certainly, the training at our teachers' colleges will have to be
sorted out," Bernard said.</p>
<p>
He told <b>The Gleaner</b> that he had asked for the language policy and that a document has been sent to him, which he's now in the process of perusing.</p>
<p>
"But we cannot be talking about making it compulsory yet until we know
that the system is ready to deliver the teaching and learning of any
compulsory second language. It is important to have such policy so we
can build out the infrastructure," he reiterated.</p>
<p>
"Having the Cuban teachers coming, as they have been for the past
decade, is the catalyst for what really needs to happen. We really need
to have a robust system to build out the necessary infrastructure, and
that must be guided by a policy," Bernard said.</p>
<p>
In addition, he said lecturers and the syllabus to place teachers into
the system, in tandem with the ICT sector, are also needed.</p>
<p>
More than 300 Cuban teachers have taught locally in Jamaica as part of
the programme, which has been supported by the Cuban government since
its inception in 1997.</p>
<p>
Education Minister Ruel Reid said he was particularly proud of the
important development value of the bilateral agreement between the
governments of Jamaica and Cuba, which has facilitated teachers from
Cuba sharing their vast educational expertise with thousands of Jamaica
teachers, students, administrators, parents, technocrats and other
stakeholders in the system.</p>
<p>
"The Ministry of Education will continue to support this programme, and
we hope that it will be expanded in the years to come," he said.</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>