THE Ministry of Education injected more than $100 million into its student development programmes in 2006. The move was in keeping with its vision to produce a cadre of human resources ably skilled to compete in the global environment.

The ministry presented grants totalling $88.5 million to 32 upgraded schools across the island, under the Secondary Schools Enhancement Programme (SSEP).

The sums are to be used to support initiatives to improve student and teacher performance, expand curriculum offerings, improve attendance and upgrade the school environments.

Acting assistant chief education officer for school operations, Everald Douglas, said the ministry must be commended for its “timely intervention and for making available scarce resources in support of the schools’ efforts to make the teaching and learning environments more accommodating and more conducive to the job at hand”.

He said the beneficiary institutions have a responsibility to maximise the benefits that come with the grants, and to ensure the programmes implemented result in “quality output”.

The SSEP, he noted, hinged on the development and implementation of a school improvement plan, which, he said, provided a blueprint for the development of the institution.

“This blueprint is very important as it identifies where the school is at, at any given point in time, where the school wants to go, what it wants to achieve and how to achieve it,” Douglas said.

Introduced in 2001, the SSEP is a government initiative that involves the provision of funds to recently upgraded or new high schools – which do not benefit under the Reform of Secondary School Programme (ROSE) – to undertake actions detailed in a school development plan.

The Student Empowerment Programme, began in 2005, benefited from some $8 million towards the provision of resource materials, which were used to assist secondary school students who scored below a certain mark on the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT).

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Maria Jones, said the programme was designed for students who have already done nine years of schooling, but did not attain the ninth grade level of achievement.

“It is a programme that recognises that some of our youngsters, who are in the high school system, need a little bit more personalised help than others. and the programme has been structured to provide this additional help,” she said.

The objectives of the programme include assisting students to develop positive self-esteem, providing resources to deal with learning deficits and equipping them with the requisite skills for the job market.

The key features of the Student Empowerment Programme are: routine visual and auditory screening, educational and psychological assessment, an adapted curriculum, enhanced classroom spaces, extended schooling, provision of appropriate support materials and smaller classes to facilitate individualised instruction.

At the start of the programme, the students should have been between 16 and 17 years, and should previously have been enrolled in an all-age, primary or junior high school.

They are placed in special classes of no more than 25 students, where they are taught English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Social Studies and Information Technology.

They are also exposed to at least one technical subject, guidance and counselling, health and family life education and entrepreneurial skills. A foreign language course, sport and games are taken with the general school population.

Fifteen million dollars was also allotted to the Inner City Schools Programme in some 23 schools in Kingston and StAndrew, Spanish Town and Montego Bay.

This programme, established in 2002, aims to improve student performance, and primarily provides training for guidance counsellors, teachers and principals.

Acting chief education officer in the ministry, Jasper Lawrence, said the programme takes the form of workshops and clinical sessions and allows principals, teachers and guidance counsellors to look at the challenges they experience and work out strategies to deal with them.

Lawrence noted that training for guidance counsellors was even more essential.

“The challenges in the inner city are numerous, as they have to deal with the problems of violence in the community, as well as violence and anti-social behaviour in the schools,” he said.

He added that the physical facilities in some of the schools need to be given priority attention, if they are to be on par with other schools. As such, the programme also assisted those schools where facilities were less than acceptable.

“If we want these schools to perform like the other schools that are not facing such challenges, we need to put in extra resources,” he said.

“We realise that if we are going to achieve equity and quality, then you have to put in a little more resources where the needs are greater,” he added.

Lawrence also said that an evaluation was currently in progress to assess the improvement of the schools that were under the programme.

“A number of them have reported some significant gains, both in terms of students’ performance and the enhancement of the physical support facilities within the schools. In time, we might be able to graduate some of these schools and take on new schools,” he said.