MORE than 87 per cent of his graduating class at Kingston Technical High School (KTHS) could not read at the required level, but 19-year-old Ricardo Marsh was the exception. Indeed, he was way ahead of the pack, earning one of two Jamaica technical high school scholarships offered by the Ministry of Education in 2006.

That scholarship, which offers tuition coverage for the duration of Ricardo’s five years at the University of Technology (UTech) and an additional $15,000 to cover the costs of books each year, has given him a chance to fulfil his dream of acquiring a tertiary level education and eventually becoming an engineer. It was a chance many of his classmates did not get because they were only semi-literate.

But Ricardo, who lives with his stepmother in the Maxfield Avenue area, says it was through no fault of their own. “I don’t think it’s the school administration’s fault. It’s the entire education system’s fault because you reach grade seven at a junior high school, and you can’t read, and then you move to grade eight, still can’t read,” he told the Sunday Observer last week.

“You still move to grade nine and then, you move on to another school and you continue progressing up the ladder – and you still can’t read. You’re not achieving anything, but you’re moving up. The school can’t do anything because they are going to send more (students who read below their levels), and you can’t focus on them when you’re getting 100, 200 more (new students) every year,” he added.

In assessing the situation that was faced by many of his friends, the young man reiterated a criticism that has long been levelled against the education system in Jamaica.

“Some of them (students) would really want to learn, but the teachers didn’t have time to spend on them,” he said.

Consequently, the students, faced with the prospect of failure, would stop attending classes. This, Ricardo said then allowed teachers to focus on the ‘brighter’ students. Fortunately for Ricardo, he was able to escape that dilemma because he was literate, and although he failed the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) when he sat it 1993 and ended up in a technical school, it wasn’t for a lack of intellectual ability.

“I failed GSAT, but it was an accident because I had just come from country and my father really didn’t have any money so I didn’t have any books,” he recalled.

He wanted to go to Wolmer’s or to Kingston College, but when he got to KTHS he decided to make the best of the experience. He had harboured dreams of being a doctor, but once he started at the technical school, he knew he was going to be an engineer.

“From starting KTHS I wanted to do engineering. It’s like I choose it and the school choose it,” he said, explaining the different vocational areas at the school and how he was selected for the Engineering and Radiation (ER) stream. “I wanted to be a doctor because I always liked the sciences, but then my class didn’t do (biology) because it is not a subject that is needed to do electrical engineering. But I still wanted to do (it) but had to do HSB (human & social biology) because the other classes would have been ahead in their field,” he added.

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The former KTHS head boy and student of the year said that although engineering would not have been his first choice, he nonetheless applied himself to it.

“I had to do it and my average had to be a certain grade so I had to do well at it, whether or not I liked it. And then eventually I got to like it,” he said. The youngster had a similar strategy for English Language, which paid big dividends in the end.

“I hated English. I still don’t like it, but my teacher said ‘yuh need fi pass, yuh need fi do yuh work. Go home go read yuh book’, and then I passed. I even got a distinction, which was surprising (because) I never put a lot of effort in the subject. I used to get 50s and 60s, and then I came out of the exam with a grade one and (it was) because of the teacher there pushing me,” he said, heaping praise on his former English teacher Sylvia Edwards.

“And then I knew I needed to pass English because there’s no other way to be accepted into UTech because it’s a requirement,” he added.

Ricardo got distinctions for English Language and Information Technology, while he earned grade twos for Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Human and Social Biology, and Electrical and Electronic Technology.

He said he was pleased with his performance and so were his teachers and family members.

“My family was happy. They said they knew I would do well. After I did the exams, I was hoping I passed but didn’t know what to expect because normally when I do exams, I always make some careless mistakes. Mi normally know the work and then when mi come out, mi sey ‘watch ya mi neva convert dat’ or something,” he noted.

He nonetheless put in long hours of study and always made sure not to wait until the day before an exam to study. That way, he said he was able to rise above the violence going on in his community.

“If gunshots were firing and I had a test the next day, there’s nothing I could do. I guess I wouldn’t study then because it would be so close to me (but) usually I don’t study so much (at the appointed time). I normally put in the work before because war normally starts late in the night and normally when I go home, I would read through so that when it starts I’m usually in bed already or about to finish up,” the teen told the Sunday Observer.

He said how he dealt with his situation was perhaps different from the way other students in the area did, a fact which may well have accounted, at least in part, for his success.

“You can’t study if you’re in fear of dying. If gunshots are firing, there’s no way you can concentrate on reading a book or seh yuh ah go do yuh school work. It (violence did affect me), but I had good friends who helped me (in study groups) and because I wanted to do well and I was expected to do well by my teachers and family. Normally you are going to do well if you want to do well,” he said.

The shy teen is the last of six children for his mother, who died when he was eight. He is the seventh child for his father, who migrated to the United States last year. He was very active in extra-curricular activities in high school – volleyball, Key club, 4-H club, Spanish club, Science club – but is waiting till he completes the A’ Level set of courses at UTech this year and transfers into the degree programme to get involved again.

For now, he’s concentrating on maintaining a ‘B’ average in order to keep his scholarship. However, after earning his degree, Ricardo plans to land a job in his field, procure an engineering licence and pursue a Master’s degree.

Each year the Ministry of Education awards two scholarships to technical school students who excel academically. Last year, both of them were won by students from Kingston Technical High.