The ambitious rural school that’s going fully digital

Decisive leadership from the top to the bottom of the spectrum is needed more than ever in order to quickly close this digital chasm between rich and poor nations.

One of the key sectors central to Jamaica’s competitiveness in this emerging dispensation is education. But the advent of the coronavirus pandemic has also sought to highlight the enormity of the task facing countries like Jamaica and what is needed to bridge the gap in the global economy.

For Jamaica  telecommunication infrastructures proved unreliable as the pandemic forced schools online, while the tools required for teachers and students were insufficient during lockdown which began in March. Six months later and the reality has not changed much with most schools opting for a ‘blended approach’ – meaning virtual and physical classes will take place on alternate days. This is said to be the best approach particularly for larger primary and secondary institutions. But it has without doubt added to the confusion of an already truncated academic year along with established health protocols.

However, in deep rural St Elizabeth one private institution of learning is already on the brink of a digital breakthrough from an educational point of view.

For more than half-a-century the Bull Savannah SDA Preparatory has been molding young lives in this south eastern community in the parish. They were far from being the school of choice, though, for many in the area until recently.

In the last couple of years their stocks have gone up significantly under the leadership of Tyrone Thomas, a former high school visual arts teacher. Since taking over the reins five years ago Thomas has introduced specialist teachers to specific subjects, resulting in impressive performances in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam this year as well as the year before.

Now with the new academic year being delayed by a month due to rising COVID-19 cases and many schools still not adequately prepared to facilitate online learning, the expected outcomes are not so optimistic generally speaking.

But at Bull Sav SDA Prep things are looking bright with a full rollout of its online Schoology Learning Management System fully up and running.

“Many schools in America (USA) have gone paperless and that’s what we are doing this year, we are going totally paperless,” Thomas who grew up in Planters Hall near Old Harbour, told Old Harbour News in an exclusive interview. “That means their text books will be digital, their work book will be digital, they are interactive, so they can do their tasks and get response same time."

The former BB Coke High School teacher added: “We are also bringing gamification into the classroom as well which will be project based.”

In a wide-range dialogue touching several issues impacting education and the importance of moving with alacrity and the need to embrace this new paradigm, Thomas said all planning will be done on the Schoology platform.

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“So all the activities, all the videos and all the contents and instructions will be loaded onto the platform before teaching takes place,” he outlined. “So once the child has access, the child can begin learning as soon as the teachers give them access.

“What we are planning is that if should a day come and a teacher is sick then learning should not stop. And if a child is absent because the child is sick or cannot attend school, then learning should not stop for that child.

“So when a teacher goes to school the teacher will say to the class ‘take out your device and go to x, y, z’ and facilitate the learning there. While those at home the parents will have to facilitate.”

Throughout the summer parents of all 150 students were engaged in training sessions “to get them to understand how they facilitate learning at home. How do you create that timetable so the child knows that he’s at school when he’s at home”.

“If we cannot return to physical school then we are ready to go and if we are going back to the classroom, the parents can assist when they get home,” the principal said with great assurance.

During the lockdown Thomas said they were able to engage every student on its online platform which yielded positive results.

“What we are seeing with this online teaching is that the students are able to learn at a faster pace,” he said. “More is get done during online teaching. Teachers will have no need to mark register or mark school work.

With Schoology and other similar programmes accessible for free, Thomas is surprised by the slow pace of the government to push teaching online. He noted that the blended approach being adopted by most schools will ultimately fail to achieve the desired objectives of the Ministry of Education.

“They know without a shadow of doubt that they cannot control children when they come back to school. It will be more of teacher managing students’ movement rather than teaching,” he contends.