“Individualise your curriculum to cater to the children before you” – Minister Manickchand urges teachers of Westminster Secondary
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, MP has urged the teachers of the West Minster Secondary School to create a curriculum that caters to the needs of all of the students.
Speaking on Monday at the official first day of class, Minister Manickchand told the teachers, “Individualise your curriculum to cater for the children before you. It is what you would want as a parent, it is what I would want as a parent and we are the parents of these children.
“Don’t see a class, see individuals, find out their stories and when you’re delivering the curriculum, which is I asked you to specialise… Don’t say we have offer 12 subjects… If you know this is a child who can’t manage 12 why are you offering 12 or forcing them into a stream? Math’s and English and four more subjects, matriculation is what you’re looking for.”
Minister Manickchand said children who are unable to cope with the magnitude of work at the Fourth Form, it is advisable that they be placed in a special stream that caters specifically to their learning needs.
“So, if coming on to Fourth Form you have a bunch of children who can handle the 12, they’re in one stream or two or 10 streams but if you have seven of them, nine of them, 14 of them who can’t then they must be in their own special stream… Math and English is a must so you do more Math and English with them because they need more of it to be able to pass and then four other subjects.”
The Minister told teachers that they also have the responsibility of ensuring that the students are socially grounded.
“So, it’s also life skills, how do you get them to understand that manners are a beautiful thing? And will take you very very far… So, it’s not only the academic pursuits, develop whole children in this school, whole children, it’s a beautiful plant but beautiful must come out of it.”
Minister Manickchand also urged the teachers to make their love for teaching count by changing the trajectory of the lives of the students at the school.