MP Labega: Education recovery must start at home, technology used the correct way

GREAT BAY--Member of Parliament Dimar Labega has weighed in on the country’s troubling early grade reading and mathematics assessment results, saying that while government and schools have a major role to play, meaningful improvement will also require stronger involvement from parents, families, and the wider community.

Commenting on the recent presentation made by Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Melissa Gumbs in Parliament, MP Labega said there is broad agreement on one central point: overall test scores in both reading and mathematics remain too low.

He acknowledged that the data shows some improvement between 2023 and 2025, but said the gains are not enough and much more must be done to raise student performance across the board.

At the same time, he stressed that the burden for solving the problem cannot be placed entirely on government or teachers alone. Academic success, he said, is shaped just as much by what happens in the home as by what happens in the classroom.

According to MP Labega, parents, older siblings, and other family members all play an important role in a child’s development and learning habits. He said real progress will require support from all parts of society, especially in helping children strengthen the basic literacy and communication skills that underpin their success in school.

Among the concerns raised by MP Labega was the need for stronger emphasis on proper English usage at home. He argued that families should encourage children to communicate in correct grammatical form, rather than allowing weak language habits to become normalized.

He said parents and other adults can make a meaningful difference by requiring children to text in proper grammar, correcting errors, and guiding them through the process so they better understand sentence structure, pronunciation, and word usage. He also encouraged more direct conversation with children, rather than relying too heavily on text-based communication.

MP Labega said he has personally used those methods with younger students and family members and has seen the long-term value of that approach, even when the guidance may have seemed frustrating to the child at the time.

A major focus of his remarks was the expanding role of technology in children’s lives and the possibility that it may be contributing to weaker learning patterns when not properly managed.

He noted that children now often have access to tablets, phones, and other smart devices at very young ages, sometimes as early as five years old. While he acknowledged that technology can be an advantage when used well, he warned that it can also create serious setbacks when balance and supervision are missing.

According to MP Labega, many of the foundational skills children once developed through repetition, practice, and direct engagement are now being weakened by overreliance on digital shortcuts. He pointed to autocorrect replacing proper spelling practice, slang and voice notes replacing grammatically correct writing, and the constant pull of social media reducing attention span and deep engagement.

He questioned whether smart devices are truly making children smarter, or whether they are, in some cases, dulling the very cognitive and comprehension skills that schools are trying to build.

To support that point, MP Labega referenced research showing that students who rely too heavily on smartphones or the internet to quickly find homework answers often perform worse on exams because they do not engage deeply enough with the material. His broader concern was that easy digital access to answers may be coming at the expense of critical thinking, retention, and real understanding.

Still, MP Labega made clear that he is not dismissing technology itself. Rather, he said the issue is how it is being used. When guided correctly, he noted, the same technology can help children reach higher levels of achievement and provide valuable support to both teachers and parents.

He pointed out that there is no shortage of educational apps, tools, and programs that can support learning. The challenge, he said, is ensuring that those constructive uses of technology are stronger and more consistent than the distractions posed by social media and aimless internet browsing.

In the end, MP Labega said the response to the country’s education struggles must be shared. While government, schools, and teachers work to provide the resources students need, families and communities must also contribute the resource that is often most valuable and most lacking: time.

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