IVAN “Wally” Johnson, the principal of Kingston College, yesterday criticised the just-released study which rated school based on the performance of students in last year’s CXC examination.

At the same time, however, he said that the poor performance of some children should not be blamed on parents. “We can bawl as much as we want about parenting or what the home must be. It won’t help the situation. We are barking up the wrong tree it has to be the teachers primarily who are responsible,” the KC principal told a luncheon meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Kingston at the Hilton Hotel.

Johnson said the methods used in the study done by Dr Dennis Minott and Keisha Martin were “uncertain”, and recommended that ratings be calculated based on examinations done over a three-year period.

Johnson, whose school was ranked 13th among traditional high schools, said once the ratings from the study were put in black and white it would not change. “I don’t care how many extenuating circumstances are brought up by various schools, it is not going to change. I just think it was a pity that we should have rated the schools from one all the way down to 148. It would have been better if this thing was done over a three-year period because it, (the ratings) does fluctuate depending upon what kind of students you have.”