NATIONAL Commercial Bank on Wednesday resumed its sponsorship of two Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) subjects for students islandwide, but this time with strict guidelines that students maintain a 70 per cent average in fourth and fifth form as part of new guidelines to qualify for their fees to be paid.

Phase two of the Jamaica Education Initiative (JEI) replaces phase one which launched in 2003, in which the bank, through the NCB Foundation, paid for students sitting two business subjects – Principles of Accounting and Principles of Business – in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams usually done at the end of fifth form in high schools.

But the foundation ended phase one of the programme in 2005, saying the initiative was wasted on many students who did not complete their school-based assessments (SBA), while most did not even bother to sit the exams.

The SBA, according to the CXC’s website, is an internal assessment enabling the teacher to provide opportunities for students to acquire skills and attitudes through activities done during the course of study. The assessment of students contributes to the final grade awarded.

The new rules also stipulate that the percentage of students from the school sitting the exams should be 90 per cent or higher; and the financial need of individual students will be assessed based on the school’s recommendation.

NCB chairman Michael Lee-Chin said it became necessary to re-evaluate the sponsorship programme for a number of reasons, including the trend of students not sitting the exams. “We had a dropout rate of 70 per cent. That was not good,” he said.

He said the new criteria were developed after consultation with the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Lee Chin also recalled that he started the JEI to express his gratitude to the Jamaican people from whom he received three year’s scholarship money to attend university in Canada in 1971, through then Prime Minister Hugh Shearer.

“It is our dream that one day every single Jamaican child will have the opportunity to complete tertiary education. It is our committment to do all we can to realise that dream,” he said.

NCB scholarship awardee Gabrielle Broadie, a former student of Campion College who is to attend Emory University in Atlanta, USA, in endorsing the initiative, urged students to take advantage of the opportunities available under the JEI. “I was disappointed to learn that the resources that NCB had used to pay for the exams were being wasted… NCB is more than willing to help students who are diligent and put out the effort,” she said.

Minister of Education Maxine Henry-Wilson also challenged students to play their part in making the programme successful. “We need to convince our young people that they should never take anything for granted,” said the minister.

The JEI is funded by approximately $5 million monthly from one per cent of all purchases made using NCB’s Keycard.