MORE than 4,000 students have now registered for Government’s Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP), designed to boost their literacy levels and enhance their overall readiness for entry into high school.

This is up from 3,000 in August, when the Ministry of Education put out an appeal for the parents and guardians of the other 3,000 students who were referred to the remedial education programme in the last school year to sign up.

The 6,000 students were barred from sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test — the exam sat by Jamaican youngsters in order to enter the secondary school system — having failed to be certified literate.

“We are concerned that there remains nearly 3,000 students who have not gone into the ASTEP centres to be registered,” Education Minister Andrew said at a press conference, held at the ministry’s office on August 19.

He went on to add that the ministry was “not yet in panic mode” but that education officers and principals had been instructed to get in touch with the students and urge them to enrol in the programme.

They have since done so, according to ASTEP co-ordinator Novelette Denton-Prince, who credits “constant appeals to parents via (the) media and schools using creative strategies to encourage parents within their communities” for the growth in the number of students now registered.

She noted that the ministry would continue in those efforts to get the numbers up to 100 per cent.

“(We will) be working closely with the schools, PTA (parent-teacher associations) and communities to identify the students and provide assistance to parents to encourage them to get the students enrolled in a centre,” Denton-Prince told Career & Education.

“Students are provided with a meal and are placed in centres in close proximity to their homes to reduce transportation cost to parents,” she added.

Students in $200-million ASTEP — more than 80 per cent of which is funded by the Government — are exposed to what Denton-Prince calls a “functional” curriculum, which was developed by the Institute of Education at the University of the West Indies.

The subject areas being covered under the programme include communication skills, language, mathematics, social studies, integrated science, music, drama, physical education, and personal empowerment.

There are ASTEP centres in 165 primary, all-age and junior high schools across the island. They are run with the benefit of an additional 170 staff members, including centre co-ordinators, guidance counsellors, support specialists and teacher assistants from the National Youth Service.

Meanwhile, Denton-Prince said that since the programme got underway in early September, things have been going well.

“Registration is growing daily (and) students are excited,” she told Career & Education.