In a community of scattered houses in deep rural St Catherine, a group of principals say they have the solution to the dilemma facing educators of what to do with almost 3,000 grade nine students who have not been placed in schools because of poor performance in the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT).

In fact, since 1999, the year the North East St Catherine Principals and Chairmen Association first pilot-tested the ‘Continuation of Education of Grade 9 Completers of All-Age and Junior High Schools’ project at the former Troja Primary School, the principals say they have helped over 100 grade nine students to prepare for the formidable Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams, with encouraging results.

For example, in the first batch of 65 students nearly all of them received at least one CXC pass; four got five subjects and six passed six subjects each.

Again, this year, of the second batch of 47 students almost all received at least two CXC passes; one student received five passes; four got four and three passed three.

Seventeen year-old Fayann Hinds was among the grade niners from the second group this year who surpassed her own expectations: Her CXC results last week showed five CXC grade two and three passes out of a total seven subjects. Like most students in the project, she did not ‘get’ English nor Mathematics, but will be repeating these subjects at Troja Primary and High School in the coming year.

“I was happy that I was able to bring out the best in myself and in the school,” Hinds told the Sunday Observer. “Troja High School is a recently upgraded high school, and seeing that we have performed this well, from last year to this year, I think it’s good and I feel good.”

The story is almost the same for Horace Blackburn who obtained five CXCs and now works at the front desk of the Social Development Commission, as well as Jermaine Harrison who achieved six subjects and works at the Citrus Grower’s Association in Bog Walk.

The project may be seen as one of the success stories of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, although surprisingly, it has remained almost exclusively in the Troja district, after a failed attempt by the ministry to get it going in Mandeville.

“We were putting the pilot together with the intention that if it succeeds, we would multiply it across the country to deal with the problems that we have now,” said Phyllis Mitchell, a former state minister in the education ministry who is now a consultant with the Government’s Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education. She supervised the programme’s implementation, as Government policy at that time was aiming at providing five years of secondary education to all by year 2005.

She has no explanation why the project was not replicated across the parishes.

“Maybe it’s the administration change . and they don’t take it on, but this is the solution to the problem they have,” she said in an interview at the school last Thursday.

At the time of implementation, she said, the ministry statistics revealed that there were 11,063 students from all-age and junior high schools islandwide, for whom spaces needed to be identified so they could continue their secondary education. At least 60 per cent of them came from the rural areas, which suggested a strong link between poverty, rural residence and students’ performance.

The ministry had other concerns for this group of 15 to 17 year-old out-of-schoolers.

One concern, according to Mitchell, was that social tension was high in the 15 to 18 age group. “These youngsters are both out of school and unemployed and some of them were gravitating towards crime, violence, and teenage pregnancy,” she said.

In addition, all-age schools were left with a lot of space because the top grade six students in the Grade Six Achievement Test were placed in high schools.

“Some of those that weren’t achieving were just left behind, so you would have four in a class, sometimes three,” said Timothy Bailey, principal of Guys Hill High and chairman of the 19-member North East St Catherine Principals and Chairmen Association.

“Those that are left behind, it wouldn’t be economically wise to keep them,” Mitchell added. “Because if you look at the pupil/teacher ratio you may have two in grade seven, three in grade eight and four in grade nine, some just have one. So between seven, eight and nine, a school would end up with nine students and one teacher. So in this case, the child will never be able to cover the grades seven, eight and nine curriculum because there is just one teacher.”

These students were also placed in the Troja programme. A second shift was added to accommodate them and the school, with funds from the ministry, recruited teachers and improved its library facilities, science labs and computer rooms.

“We started off with English and Mathematics and we had Integrated Science, Agricultural Science, Information Technology and Home Economics,” said Rufie Bromfield, principal of Troja Primary and High.

Later, Principles of Business, Spanish, Social Studies, Religious Education, Industrial Technique and History were added to the curriculum.

In essence, the plan was to teach a curriculum, loaded with technical subjects to expose the students to employable skills that would enable them to find work when they leave, and prepare them for matriculation into HEART/NTA or the tertiary institutions for further study.

Because most of the recruits were from poor homes, the school waived the fees in many instances to ensure maximum attendance, Bromfield said.

Mitchell and the principals believe the same programme, if replicated in other districts, could eliminate the grade nine dilemma.

“If Troja can do it, others can do it, and this is deep, deep rural,” Mitchell said.