CHRONIC absenteeism and high exam failure rates continue to plague the Alternative Secondary Transition Education Programme (ASTEP), which is supposed help students who have repeatedly failed to master the Grade Four Literacy Test (GFLT) to transition into the secondary school system.

A 2013/14 Auditor General’s Report has revealed that less than 20 per cent of the students who sat the ASTEP examinations in 2013 and 2014 passed, while between 23 and 26 per cent were nowhere to be found, and the remaining students failed the test.

This translated to only 471 of 2,711 students who sat the exam in 2013 achieving the pass mark of 70 per cent and over; while 630 were absent. In 2014, the average pass mark was reduced to 60 per cent, but the number of students who met that target only increased by two per cent (514 of 2,685 students); while 26 per cent or 69 did not show up.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Elaine Foster Allen sought to explain to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament yesterday that, generally, 17 to 20 per cent of secondary and primary school children are not attending school.

“So, generally, we do have an attendance problem. The children on the ASTEP are children who were underperforming and some of them needed special education support. When we saw what was happening, we had a valuation report undertaken and decided that the way in which the programme is structured needed to be addressed differently and, since 2013, we have put several things in place to address the attendance and achievement of the children,” she told the committee.

Chief Education Officer Grace McLean said the ministry has reached out to the parents of ASTEP students — who are mainly from families below the poverty line — but that this proved to be an uphill task. “With the best of efforts, we still have issues in terms of the students turning up for classes and for exams. The ministry has since then engaged social workers, who are working with the guidance counsellors in our schools,” she said, stating that the aim is to give all the students access to counselling.

According to McLean, there are some encouraging signs, as indicated by continued decline in the number of students placed in the programme. She noted that over 1,000 students were transitioned into high schools in 2013, prompting Public Accounts Committee Chairman Audley Shaw to ask what happens to the students who did not sit the exams.

McLean said that, because of the absenteeism, the ministry could not verify whether these students had made it into the secondary school system. “The 17 to 19 per cent indicated, we have just not been able to find some of them with all the best efforts. We have checked with our registration system to see if they have been transferred to other schools… we have gone to their homes, and we are just not able to find them,” she complained.

For those who had failed the exams, she said, special programmes have been established in the junior high schools, as well as some high schools, to accommodate them.

Government committee member Colin Fagan highlighted what he said he perceived was “no real anxiety” on the part of some secondary schools to accept students from ASTEP.

Meanwhile, another Government member, Fitz Jackson, argued that parents must be held responsible for their children’s absence from school. “There is a legal obligation on the part of the parents of these children at school. If we don’t hold parents responsible to see to the attendance of children we will only be reacting to the problem,” he stressed, insisting that the laws governing this issue must be enforced.

In the meantime, McLean said a new approach would be adopted, beginning with a pilot in 27 schools, this September. “Once we have identified the students from grade four, we are going to be tracking them, providing the necessary intervention, and when they move on to the secondary level they will be moving into one of three pathways — the normal pathway for students who are progressing at a fairly normal level; the transitional pathway, which would mean that they have some kind of delayed learning, and need support; and the special needs pathway for students who have been identified as having some kind of disability from mild to severe,” she outlined.

ASTEP is a two-year transitional programme which delivers a modified secondary education syllabus with the aim of enabling students who have failed the Grade Four Literacy Test to transition to secondary school. Students who do not master the GFLT cannot sit the Grade Six Achievement Test, which is the gateway to the secondary system. ASTEP has engaged 1,100 students since it began in 2011.