According to CIGTV news and a press release from the ministry, which came via a local media company, Tammy Hopkins, the acting director of the Department of Education Services, also revealed that 80 new teachers have been appointed. However, it is not clear if these are new jobs to help deliver the new curriculum or vacancies created by the departure of staff at the end of the last school year.

CNS has submitted questions on this issue and numerous others but we have heard nothing from the new publicity firm contracted by the ministry. The media was not invited to the event to hear and document either the acting director’s announcements or the education minister’s address about this new curriculum, the appointment of the new teachers and what appears to be a considerable boost in investment for schools for books and other resources. We have also requested transcripts of speeches.

In a brief extract from Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly’s address in the press release, she revealed that the government has supplied laptops for all government teachers.

“I did promise you that we were going to get text books back into the classroom,” O’Connor-Connolly told the education staff at the event. “Science books have previously been delivered to all of their destinations in our schools. We can already see the upward mobility in the science related areas. I am not just satisfied with that though. I want science coaches available to every single primary school and we will be working to make sure the necessary assistance is there.”

The minister said that around CI$1 million has been spent on new resources for the curriculum, and programmes such as ‘Power Maths’ have been implemented.

Government is still under fire for poor education standards, which have been directly exposed over the last few years, from the original base-line inspections, which happened under the previous minister, to the more recent individual school inspection reports that have exposed a number of shortcomings across government schools and in many private schools as well.

The ministry is hoping that combined with the investment in resources, the increase in staff and last year’s pay increases, the new curriculum will push up standards in all schools.

The new curriculum covers the subject areas of English, maths, science, art and design, computing, design and technology, Spanish, life skills, music, physical education, religious education and social studies. Social studies, which has been adapted to reflect the Cayman Islands context, comprises three main strands: social organisation, civics and economics; geography and the environment; and history, culture and identity.

Officials have said that the implementation of an early years curriculum for Reception is also expected to go live for the upcoming new school year.