Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness has said that very soon no child will be able to sit the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) unless certified literate and numerate.

Mr. Holness was contributing to a healthy debate on education in Parliament yesterday.

The Education Minister said that students who failed the Grade Four Literacy Test would be promoted to grade five, while teachers worked to help them advance their literacy. He said, however, that they would have to resit the grade four test even when they reached grade six.

"Every parent must know, don't worry about GSAT, shift the focus. Worry about your child being literate and numerate," Mr. Holness said.

Opposition Member of Parliament Ronald Thwaites had moved the Private Member's Motion for the House to amend the Education Act and related regulations to ensure that mastery was achieved in each grade before promotion, as a norm in the public-school system.

"In principle, member, I share your concern but in practice it is not possible to do that," Mr. Holness said.

The Education Minister said that improving early childhood education would see better students later down the road.

At present, 40 per cent of students who sit the Grade Four Literacy Test do not achieve mastery.

"At grade four, children will be asked to sit a national literacy test and a national numeracy test that will certify them as being literate and numerate," Mr. Holness said.

Mr. Holness said that if children who fail at grade four are not promoted, an additional 93 classrooms or 10 more schools would have to be built. Already, the Ministry of Education is trying to reduce student-teacher ratio from 45:1 to 35:1. The building of 22 schools would help in this regard, Mr. Holness said.

Meanwhile, Maxine Henry Wilson, the former education minister, now Opposition spokes-person, said that studies had shown that if students were not promoted, they could become demotivated, or be labelled as 'dunce'.