BAHAMAS-Education Minister confirms 12-year-old schoolboy found living in car.

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – Education Minister Glenys Hanna Martin has confirmed that school attendance monitors tasked with getting drop-outs back in school had recently found a 12-year-old boy living alone in a car.

She said that the child is now in the state’s custody but declined to provide further details.

“These are the issues that we face. Now, we can ignore it and turn the next way, but that will come back to haunt us and further hurt us anyhow because a child should not fall by the wayside,” she told Parliament.

“The one person protected in this life should be the children of this nation, Hanna Martin told legislators, adding that efforts to re-engage absent students have been “very effective” despite challenges.

She said school attendance rates have risen to 95 percent for September, adding that people are on the ground every day looking for students.

“So we prioritize getting students off the streets and into the classrooms,” she said, noting improvements in students’ academic performance after intervention initiatives were implemented to deal with learning loss suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent survey found that 44 percent of public school students require urgent learning intervention, and the Education Minister said, “After the third testing, we have discovered that preliminary results revealed that 60 percent of the students had shown academic growth.

“Forty percent accelerated and 20 percent typical. Fourth graders have shown the greatest accelerated process with 62 percent growth in reading.”

“However, the main number of 44 percent has only been reduced by four percent, so we still have a target area of 40 percent that we have to continue to work with, but we are seeing progress, and we’re seeing the students who were at grade level as a result of our efforts are now above grade level.”

The Education Minister said 40 percent are above grade level now, and 20 percent are now at grade level, and that strategies to deal with learning loss include individualized learning, a targeted focus on specific subjects each term, after-school programs, and the assistance of non-governmental agencies.