THE Ministry of Education and the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) are expressing widely differing views about the progress of the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP), which was designed to assist non-literate students who have passed the age for primary school.

While the ministry says ASTEP is on its way to meeting its objective of significantly improving the literacy levels of the students, the JTA maintains the programme is under-resourced and is, in effect, abusing the children of Jamaica’s poor.

ASTEP, which started last September, was championed by former Prime Minister and Minister of Education Andrew Holness, as part of the solution to drastically reduce the number of children leaving school unable to read and write.

Some 6,000 students, who completed their years at the primary level without achieving mastery in the Grade Four Literacy Test after four opportunities, were selected for the programme.

The children were barred from sitting the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) under the ministry’s competence-based transition policy.

Some 191 primary, all-age and junior high schools were identified to host 258 ASTEP centres islandwide.

Now four months into the programme, co-ordinator Novelette Denton-Prince said ASTEP is on the way to meeting its objective of improving the reading and writing ability of the students so that they can be placed in mainstream secondary schools after two years.

“Looking at the reports and based on the feedback we have been getting, the learning is going very well. One of the factors that have contributed to the positive outcome is that students seem more comfortable with the small class sizes of 15 or 20 students to one teacher,” she told Career & Education.

“The students are saying that the environment is more conducive to learning. They love the (ASTEP) centres, they love the teachers and they have been getting the individual learning that they crave,” Denton-Prince added.

According to the programme co-ordinator, the students in ASTEP have been improving academically because the teachers have more time to identify their learning problems. She also noted that the morale of the staff was high.

“Including all the support specialists, centre co-ordinators and guidance consellors, 201 persons have been contracted in ASTEP centres across the island. The passion with which they speak about the centres is very good,” Denton-Prince said.

However, JTA president Paul Adams paints a very different picture of the programme, which he says has not given the necessary physical and human resources to meet its goals.

“The equipment and human resources we expected for ASTEP, we are not seeing. The standard and quality required for ASTEP to deal with the type of students in the programme has not been met by the ministry. It’s like providing a band aid for cancer. The Ministry of Education identified the illness, but has not provided the medication,” he told Career & Education.

However, Adams said that the specialist teachers recruited have been performing well despite the limited resources provided.

“The only positive thing about the centres is that the teachers have continued to work with the students despite the challenges,” he said.

To reinforce his view, Adams is calling on the National Parent- Teachers’ Association of Jamaica to dispatch representatives to ASTEP centres to investigate the operation, purpose and impact of the programme.

“I want them to visit some of these ASTEP centres to see whether or not people’s children are exposed to the quality and standard of programmes to deal with the problems that showed up when they were assessed as not being able to sit the GSAT,” said the outspoken JTA head.

Giving the example of an ASTEP centre in Trelawny that he visited, Adams said it was “just like one of the situations that the teachers have been addressing with or without the Ministry of Education”.

Commenting on the level of equipment provided to the centres, Denton-Prince disclosed that equipment delivery started late last term and was still continuing, but said that did not affect the rollout of the programme based on how it was structured.

“The equipment is there to enhance the teaching process. Teaching was already taking place at a very successful level,” she said.

Meanwhile, Adams said ASTEP would be among the issues to be raised by the JTA with new Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites in a meeting scheduled for the week of January 22.

“The students must not be held as pawns to be manipulated because their parents do not have the resources to deal with their specific cases. The minister must tell us whether or not he is endorsing ASTEP, cancelling ASTEP or creating a programme to deal with ASTEP,” he said.

In contrast, Denton-Prince is pleased with ASTEP so far, and has praised the staff and students for adding enrichment activities to improve the programme.

These include the young authors club in which ASTEP students are writing their own stories and drawing illustrations, and a reading mentorship programme in which ASTEP students read for grade one and grade two students.

“I’m seeing exciting times and greater success ahead for this programme,” she said.

Denton-Prince also noted that ASTEP has turned out to be a male-dominated programme with about 90 per cent of the 4,500 students registered being boys.

She said of the 6,000 students initially selected, about 1,000 were found to be young enough to remain at the primary level. This means they could sit the Grade Four Literacy Test again and if successful, they would be allowed to sit the GSAT in March this year.