SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — She usually laughs easily, but Sheelyn Manya has had less reason to do so lately.

Ever since the principal of the Schoolfield All-Age School in Schoolfield (listed on some maps as Scholefield), close to Malvern in this parish, heard the news that her office had been broken into, burglarised and vandalised, the laughter has given way to sadness.

“I am not angry, just very, very sad that our young people can find nothing better to do … people who will vandalise and burglarise a school, a church, a health centre, are desperately lacking in something,” Manya told Observer Central as she reflected on the incident which took place just under two weeks ago.

The burglars cut a hole in the roof late at night and entered the principal’s office. They destroyed the computer which contained “important school records”, wrecked the filing cabinet, scattered and vandalised paper-based files and stole an unspecified amount of cash.

Manya said while break-ins had occurred before, such incidents had appeared to involve children who were hungry and in search of food.

She praised the police for showing what she described as a strong interest in the case, saying that detectives had come and done fingerprint scans and were investigating.

Parents and other residents of the normally quiet and peaceful farming district voiced their alarm and were contemplating community action to prevent recurrences, she added.

For Manya and her staff, the incident is especially upsetting since the school – one of 176 around the island with the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP) — is doing “very well”.

Forty-seven of the 205 children at Schoolfield are in the ASTEP programme — a remedial course started last September aimed at 6,000 12/13 year-olds found to be below the literacy and numeracy levels that correspond to their age. The two-year course is expected to improve their levels and allow them to make the transition from primary to secondary school.

A proud Manya told Observer Central that for the most part, the children who entered the ASTEP programme at its inauguration last September, have improved by leaps and bounds.

“Overall, the school is doing pretty [well],” she declared, her face brightening. “We have a kindergarten group that is doing very well and our two ASTEP groups have two very good centre managers. The students who came in September they are not the same ones who are here (because) they have improved so much, behaviour-wise and in terms of academics,” she said.

She pointed to a display board with class exhibits including simple poems written by ASTEP students who had been functionally illiterate just nine months ago.

“The progress of some of these children is amazing,” she said.

Manya said the ASTEP experience confirmed something she had long suspected — that many functionally illiterate students were not slow because they were “quote, unquote dunce”, but for other reasons including an absence of individual attention, irregular school attendance and poor nutrition.

She found that some of the students coming from miles away — as far as New River to the north and Ivor Cottage to the south in some cases — just didn’t come to school regularly enough.

Checks with the children as well as some parents revealed economic reasons for poor attendance.

“In some cases they don’t have the money,” Manya said.

But also, many boys — who make up the great majority of the ASTEP students at Schoolfield — were being required to help their parents earn a living.

“Some go to the market and sell on a Monday. They come to school Tuesday, Wednesday and sometimes Thursday. Some don’t come to school on Thursday because they have to go and look load to go to market Friday and Saturday. Whatever is not sold (at the market) on Saturday is sold on Monday, that’s what they tell you,” said Manya.

“I think much of that explains why they are in ASTEP,” she added matter of factly.

“They don’t have shoes, so we have to be sourcing shoes from Food for the Poor and clothes, even khakis for them… We give them breakfast… Whether they are on PATH (welfare programme) or not, we still have to give them lunch and sometimes we have to give them dinner, because we realise that the only cooked meal some of them get is at school, so whether they have the money or not we have to give them something,” Manya said.

The distances some children are being asked to travel “some from off-the-main districts” has necessitated the school negotiating arrangements with taxis to collect children “halfway”.

“At least the children know that if they can find the fare to get to school, they will be fed when they get there,” Manya said.

In light of such circumstances and challenges, Manya said the last thing her school needs is to be preyed upon by thieves.