FOUR days after the publication of this year’s Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results some parents are still hopping mad over what they say is the decision by the Ministry

of Education to place

high-performing students in non-traditional high schools, often perceived to be inferior to the country’s traditional high schools.

In apparent anticipation of the furore over the placements, Education Minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites — one day before the release of the GSAT results — advised parents to encourage their children to do well wherever they were placed.

“Grow where you are planted, work with your

child’s school to make it

better,” said Thwaites as he addressed Parliament.

At a post-Cabinet press briefing that took place even while the GSAT results were being distributed to schools, Thwaites again advised parents, “It is going to mean also that many parents who thought that an 85 average would take their child to some ‘pedigree’ school of their designation are going to find that is not so, because there are so many, many more whose average are in the 90s and 95s.”

Thwaites also explained that the GSAT scores in all subject areas had improved.

But his appeal for students to make the best of their high school is being challenged

by some parents and administrators of primary and preparatory schools who

have reservations about the quality of the educational offerings at many non-traditional high schools.

For some, who used local radio call-in programmes to vent their anger, many upgraded high schools are poorly run, inadequately resourced, and are burdened by high levels of student indiscipline, overcrowding and under-performing teachers.

However, some of the country’s educators are not in agreement with the characterisation of the upgraded schools, and are asserting that the placement of high-performing students in some of these institutions is a step in the right direction.

Respected educator and former principal of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals of Secondary Schools, Alphansus Davis, is of the view that many upgraded high schools will do better with the improvements in the quality of the new cohort of students.

“Most of these non-traditional high schools are prepared to cater to the needs of these students,” he said. “The thing is that over the years the schools had not been getting the quality students. Those who get quality students work very hard with them and you have children leaving these schools with 10 and 11 subjects. Once the teachers are challenged by the quality students, they will deliver.”

Davis, who is also the chairman of the Teachers’ Services Commission, sought to dismiss unfavourable claims regarding the qualification

of teachers at the upgraded high schools.

“The last survey I did, there was hardly any difference between the level of qualification of teachers in the traditional high schools as opposed to the non-traditional high schools. In fact, we are now seeing where most of the teachers in the non-traditional high schools have at least a first degree, and there are many of them with second degrees,” said Davis, as he highlighted the need for parents to challenge the schools to perform and deliver.

According to him, many of the non-traditional high schools cannot use the absence of resources as an excuse as they are as equipped as their traditional counterparts, a point supported by principal of Jamaica College Ruel Reid.

“The older schools like ours and even Campion, we had to renovate our laboratories, so many of the newer schools have pretty new labs,” Reid told the Jamaica Observer.

“A lot of these schools, what they need is good management, and they have to go back to where Campion and Ardenne were, they built their reputation over time. The ministry has to work with these schools to improve their capacity,” said Reid, as he highlighted the need for all high schools to be provided with competent and effective boards, and for school leaders to form partnerships with other stakeholders.

“When we came to JC in 2006, everything was a mess. We worked and partnered with parents, old boys (association), corporate Jamaica to get the job done, that is the model that we want to recommend to the rest of Jamaica,” he added.

However, Reid is chiding the education ministry for not doing enough to prepare many of the upgraded high schools for the improved batch of students. Reid, who was an advisor to former Education Minister Andrew Holness, made reference to the report of the 2004 Task Force on Educational Reform, which recommended that the national GSAT average should move to 85 per cent by 2015.

“The ministry should have been aware and should have been preparing everybody for that. As the grades go up it means that more of the spaces are going to non-traditional high schools, and it’s going to get worse, not better,” said Reid who maintains the education ministry should have been doing more to address capacity deficits at some of the schools.

Meanwhile, Garfield Higgins, the principal of Tarrant High School — one of the Corporate Area’s upgraded high schools slated to receive a significant number of high-performing students — said his institution is well prepared to successfully preside over the development of students.

“Even though we didn’t get students with 80s and 90s last year, we had already put into focus a strategic plan to make sure that students who came in with an average of 45 graduate in five years’ time with a minimum of four subjects. Therefore, when we get students who are getting 80s or 70s (as I have been hearing) it will make our focus a little more concentrated. Therefore, if at 45 per cent we were aiming to graduate students with a minimum of four subjects, with students getting 70s and 80s the objective can only be that they leave with seven or more subjects at the end of five years,” said Higgins.

He added that a decision has already been made to ensure that his Grade seven students are paired with the best teachers at the institution.

“Starting September, the teachers that we have all agreed are the absolute best teachers in their subject areas, we are putting them at Grade seven to ensure that the students who come in at Grade seven are exposed to the best quality teaching at that level as a beginning point. All the studies have shown that teacher quality is the most important ingredient in student achievement,” said Higgins, as he acknowledged that the school was in need of additional resources, including upgraded science laboratories, a sixth form block and a new classroom block.

As the Sunday Observer toured the Tarrant plant we saw that the physical infrastructure and facilities were somewhat better than what exist at other upgraded schools, particularly in the Corporate Area. However, the sole science laboratory appeared to be in urgent need of a facelift, and equipment and paled in comparison to the science laboratories at Jamaica College which boasts six extensively outfitted science laboratories used for Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

Daniel Morgan, the principal of Pembroke Hall High School, which is also slated to receive more high-performing students this year, is acknowledging that his institution is also grappling with resource constraints, as it caters to the 1,300 students who attend on a shift system.

“We continue to make do with what we have and we have been doing well in many areas, including Home Economics and Agricultural Science where we receive 100 per cent passes,” said Morgan.

For Morgan, Pembroke Hall would be able to do much more if more parents pay their children’s auxiliary fees. According to him, only 55 per cent of parents pay the $6,000 that is charged, and which is used to augment the Government’s contribution.

The situation at Morgan’s school is in contrast to what pertains at Jamaica College where more than 80 per cent of the students pay the auxiliary fee of $21,000. Both Reid and Morgan maintain that the subvention from the Ministry of Education can in no way finance the activities and programmes of high schools that are committed to offering quality education.