Have some students lost the habit of going to school?

[Dolores]

Low students attendance at classes. / Noticias SIN

Despite the call for public school teachers to return to the classrooms, teachers and students have been slow in returning to full attendance. Noticias SIN visited the Instituto Politécnico Víctor Estrella Liz, in Ensanche La Fe, where out of 704 students enrolled, only 385 attended on Wednesday, 19 January 2022. Wednesday was the first day after the president of the Dominican Public School Teachers Association (ADP) revoked an order for teachers to stay out of classrooms until the end of the month. He had argued the safety of the teachers, and that 10,000 of the more than 110,000 teachers had fallen ill with Covid or the flu.

Noticias SIN reported that only five were seen teaching in the classrooms out of 31 teachers assigned to the high school.

Nevertheless, Noticias SIN reported that 95% of the students and...

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[Drperson]

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schools still closed here. I think the teachers here have lots the habit or desire to go to school

 

[LindseyKaufman]

It is general laziness, I believe. We see this after any holiday, even the single day holidays. Children do not return to school the first days and they have trouble getting back into the habit. Parents are no help, so we tell the children they must be responsible for themselves and cannot count on their parents to remember classes, to send them on time, and to be sure their uniform is washed.

Although we have been teaching all along through the pandemic, we conducted re-registration this week for existing students and new ones (for new, additional classes.) Interestingly, all the classes in the afternoon- which are for children in public school in the morning- are full. However the morning classes- for children in public school in the afternoons- remain unfilled with some being cancelled.

In Jamao, some public schools remained closed and some, open. Seems to depend on the loyalties of the staff and school directors.

 

[Auryn]

I honestly don’t know what a feasible, large scale solution to this would be, given that the government is quite obviously not concerned in the least, going on how many decades now?

More private schools? There are so many factors to consider, since private, for-profit driven schools can either be focused on quality through genuine academic rigour, total scams, and everything in between. Private does not always equal quality education, but to me it seems like there is more chance there than in the public system.

The problem is affordability, and private schools tend to leave out the kids that need learning the most. It depends on tuition etc.

I have been a long time advocate for public education but recently my overall views have begun to shift.

Globally, the pandemic is exposing failed and failing education systems. Exposing not creating.

 

[bob saunders]

It is general laziness, I believe. We see this after any holiday, even the single day holidays. Children do not return to school the first days and they have trouble getting back into the habit. Parents are no help, so we tell the children they must be responsible for themselves and cannot count on their parents to remember classes, to send them on time, and to be sure their uniform is washed.

Although we have been teaching all along through the pandemic, we conducted re-registration this week for existing students and new ones (for new, additional classes.) Interestingly, all the classes in the afternoon- which are for children in public school in the morning- are full. However the morning classes- for children in public school in the afternoons- remain unfilled with some being cancelled.

In Jamao, some public schools remained closed and some, open. Seems to depend on the loyalties of the staff and school directors.

Our children and their parents are still in their WhatsApp groups by grade from the online teaching last year. All notices/information are passed on this way, plus in person to all the students as well as on a bulletin board. January and February are always disruptive by all the holidays. I noticed a lot of kids in public school uniforms yesterday.

 

[bob saunders]

I honestly don’t know what a feasible, large scale solution to this would be, given that the government is quite obviously not concerned in the least, going on how many decades now?

More private schools? There are so many factors to consider, since private, for-profit driven schools can either be focused on quality through genuine academic rigour, total scams, and everything in between. Private does not always equal quality education, but to me it seems like there is more chance there than in the public system.

The problem is affordability, and private schools tend to leave out the kids that need learning the most. It depends on tuition etc.

I have been a long time advocate for public education but recently my overall views have begun to shift.

Globally, the pandemic is exposing failed and failing education systems. Exposing not creating.

We have quite a few students whose parents are really sacrificing a lot to pay 2000 pesos a month for their education. We try to make sure they get their money's worth. Our goal is to have all children functional readers by the end of Grade one. Most achieve this level but their are slow learners or children with learning disabilities that don't get there.

 

[Auryn]

I’ve always been told that if a child doesn’t read by the end of Grade 3, they will never become fluent readers. There are exceptions, but this is my 5th year teaching elementary (middle and high school before that) and it’s definitely the rule.
Imagine what that means to an entire generation of Dominican children affected by the pandemic idiocy, compounded by previous idiocy.
So if you can run a school on a monthly tuition that low, maybe private schools are somehow the answer. At least a better one for a larger amount of children than presently exists.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

Our children and their parents are still in their WhatsApp groups by grade from the online teaching last year. All notices/information are passed on this way, plus in person to all the students as well as on a bulletin board. January and February are always disruptive by all the holidays. I noticed a lot of kids in public school uniforms yesterday.

We, too, use What'sApp groups for each of our classes, however the groups are to communicate with parents, not to teach. The majority of our existing students re-enrolled.. Although many parents told us they wanted to enroll their chile (as a new student) we ended up with very few.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

I’ve always been told that if a child doesn’t read by the end of Grade 3, they will never become fluent readers. There are exceptions, but this is my 5th year teaching elementary (middle and high school before that) and it’s definitely the rule.
Imagine what that means to an entire generation of Dominican children affected by the pandemic idiocy, compounded by previous idiocy.
So if you can run a school on a monthly tuition that low, maybe private schools are somehow the answer. At least a better one for a larger amount of children than presently exists.

If, by "fluent readers" you mean able to read novels, you are probably correct. But we have kids as old as 13 who come to us not knowing even the alphabet and phonetic sounds and we have had success teaching them to read at a basic level - up to third grade level, as when they reach that point, they must leave our program to make space for new children.

In addition to the Reading A to Z program, we use Scholastic Lecturas Cortas, and along with both programs, we use the Heggerty program. If you are not familiar with it, Google it. It is absolutely fantastic! It takes only about 10 minutes a day and the kids think they are playing games when actually they are doing practice in phonetics, beginning, middle, and ending sounds, rhyming, etc.

 

[Auryn]

If, by "fluent readers" you mean able to read novels, you are probably correct. But we have kids as old as 13 who come to us not knowing even the alphabet and phonetic sounds and we have had success teaching them to read at a basic level - up to third grade level, as when they reach that point, they must leave our program to make space for new children.

In addition to the Reading A to Z program, we use Scholastic Lecturas Cortas, and along with both programs, we use the Heggerty program. If you are not familiar with it, Google it. It is absolutely fantastic! It takes only about 10 minutes a day and the kids think they are playing games when actually they are doing practice in phonetics, beginning, middle, and ending sounds, rhyming, etc.

Yes, research shows that if they don’t read by Grade 3, they likely never will catch up.

Functional literacy is still possible beyond that age/grade, and I had students in middle years that started the year at Grade 1-2 levels who could read functionally by the end of the year. But they never achieve grade level or catch up completely if they don’t read by Grade 3.

There are kids who challenge that, but they are the exception.

It used to be that Grade 6 level meant functional, because that was the typical reading level of the average newspaper. Seeing as those don’t exist anymore, I would bet that the level of functional reading now required is lower.

I’m looking up Heggerty because I have a little guy in Grade 1 who still struggles a bit more than I’d like to see at this time of year. Thanks 😊

 

[bob saunders]

If, by "fluent readers" you mean able to read novels, you are probably correct. But we have kids as old as 13 who come to us not knowing even the alphabet and phonetic sounds and we have had success teaching them to read at a basic level - up to third grade level, as when they reach that point, they must leave our program to make space for new children.

In addition to the Reading A to Z program, we use Scholastic Lecturas Cortas, and along with both programs, we use the Heggerty program. If you are not familiar with it, Google it. It is absolutely fantastic! It takes only about 10 minutes a day and the kids think they are playing games when actually they are doing practice in phonetics, beginning, middle, and ending sounds, rhyming, etc.

We use a similar methodology and it does work. I myself had to take special phonics class when I was in grade two. My issue was more spoken language than reading but in the end both are required. We currently have a new student, Grade four from the public school, one of our cleaner's sons, that last week could not even identify the vowels. In one week he learned them as well as most of the alphabet, so who knows what they were doing in the public school. I know he was embarrassed that his five year cousin knew more than him.

 

[bob saunders]

Can adults become fluent in newly learned scripts?

Adults learning new scripts find it hard to become automatic readers. They typically read haltingly, understand little of what they read, and may forget how to read. This article presents the hypothesis that halting reading among adult neoliterates

www.academia.edu

 

[Duece]

I have only lived here for 22 years and in all of those years it seems that education is a passing thought. It is sad to think that the injured parties in the education fiasco are children. Whenever you look at progressive countries you will find a stable and progressive education system. It takes foresight and commitment to lay the foundation for learning and then funding. Sadly, in the DR, our country, we have neither. Here is part of what's preventing the vision required to change things. TOURISM. Tourism is a two edged sword. How much education do you need to say "Hello, how are you. Can I get you anything.?" You don't need a degree to make a bed or sweep the floor or cook. This is not a knock on tourism but a sobering reality. When Covid hit the DR, suddenly there was real panic because the AI's had to shut down. Suddenly thousand of workers had no income and did not know how long the lock down would last. Where do all these employees come from? They mostly come from young people who have no other alternative. If they come from a poor family, which many do, then they don't have alternatives other than illegal activities. If the richest and most powerful wanted a change there would be one. It's a long road because you first have to have the foundations of quality teachers, excellent administration free from politics and good facilities, like private schools have but most families can't afford.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

Yes, research shows that if they don’t read by Grade 3, they likely never will catch up.

Functional literacy is still possible beyond that age/grade, and I had students in middle years that started the year at Grade 1-2 levels who could read functionally by the end of the year. But they never achieve grade level or catch up completely if they don’t read by Grade 3.

There are kids who challenge that, but they are the exception.

It used to be that Grade 6 level meant functional, because that was the typical reading level of the average newspaper. Seeing as those don’t exist anymore, I would bet that the level of functional reading now required is lower.

I’m looking up Heggerty because I have a little guy in Grade 1 who still struggles a bit more than I’d like to see at this time of year. Thanks 😊

https://heggerty.org/

Here you go! It is in Spanish and English!

 

[malko]

Lets put it this way, even before covid, rain equals no classes......'nuff said.

 

[bob saunders]

Lets put it this way, even before covid, rain equals no classes......'nuff said.

In public schools , yes. We are open unless the school district orders us to close. We had a teacher that would find as many excuses as possible not come when it rained. She no longer works for us.

 

[Aguaita29]

Nothing new. The first week of school is always slow. Traditionally, the first days are for "orientacion", and many feel that as there is "no clase nueva" it's just not worth it to send the kids to school.

Overall, most students and teachers, at least the ones I know, want to go back to school and feel things are getting back to normal.

 

[Drperson]

In public schools , yes. We are open unless the school district orders us to close. We had a teacher that would find as many excuses as possible not come when it rained. She no longer works for us.

is raining was raining might rain it is all the same classes cancelled

 

[Auryn]

Add rain to an already defunct system, recipe for disaster.

Add pandemic decisions, and the gap between haves and have nots is miles apart in comparison to many other countries.

 

[Drperson]

apparently they reopen the school here. For sure no classes fri as they will be a meeting. Next week too. Every week an excuse to close for a meeting