STUDENTS who live in and around South Manchester will have the opportunity to pursue Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level studies at Cross Keys High School, situated in that area, which commences its sixth form programme today.

Principal Ralph Nelson, who made the disclosure in an interview with JIS News, said the decision was suggested and supported by education ministry officials, including portfolio minister Ronald Thwaites, consequent on the school’s impressive performance in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) external examinations in recent years.

Nelson said most of his students have been getting more than four subjects, which qualified them for sixth form enrolment.

“The minister advised us that based on the records that he has been seeing, we could go ahead with a sixth-form programme,” the principal said.

Nelson pointed out that students have had to enrol at and travel long distances to schools in other parts of Manchester, including the capital, Mandeville, which offer this provision, because of its unavailability at Cross Keys.

He argued that although some students from his school, and the community, have opted to enrol in sixth form at other schools for the current academic year, there is keen interest in the programme’s implementation at Cross Keys High by parents, teachers, and students, among other stakeholders.

“We still have students who are interested in staying at Cross Keys, and other students from other schools in the area who are prepared to come to the sixth-form programme here. We are offering seven subjects, with three (having a) vocational focus… (including) agriculture, and food and nutrition. To get our students to be productive citizens, we are doing entrepreneurial studies. We want to encourage them to be investors,” he said.

Nelson said a certain level of transformation is resonating among the staff, who, he pointed out, were more motivated to impart their subject areas, gain advanced qualifications, “and make extra efforts to help the students”.

This, he said, should go a far way to advance Cross Keys’ latest undertaking.