BUSTAMANTE High School is fighting to keep its gates open as the institution grapples with a dramatic decline in its student population, falling from an average of 1,000 pupils five years ago to around 400 in recent days.

School Principal Wayne Evans said the sharp decline is due to a combination of factors such as low admission rates and socio-economic challenges that see students leaving school before completing their educational requirements because of financial issues at home, with some opting to seek employment to help support their families.

He said approximately 60 per cent of the school’s population are from single-parent households headed by mothers, and so in many instances the students drop out or are not consistent with class attendance because they have to become providers.

“If we start off with 100 children — particularly in upper school, our grades 10 and 11 — the economic pull for them to earn to support the family is very strong. So unless they’re doing well in school academically or they feel that they’re going to probably be able to pass the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams, you’re not going to see them still in school because their mind is now on surviving, so they don’t finish school. We will lose approximately 20 per cent of them by the time they reach grades 10 and 11,” said Evans.

“[And] it’s not just that the children are thinking that [way], the parents are also pushing that on them. So by the time they complete their first term and do the exam in December, by January you start to have a significant fallout in population,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The principal said the reality is frustrating because he knows that quite a number of the students have the potential to succeed.

“Many of them come in as completely low-performing students who were well behind but you see where they are getting there. If we could keep them around long enough, for another year or two, you can get them to where they can advance academically. But what you find is that when you call the parents, they are going to [say] right to your face, ‘Look here, I just can’t afford to send my child to school,’ and you’ll see where these children are missing out on not being able to achieve what the potential is for them because they have to move to survival mode,” said Evans.

To add to the problem, he said the school has low admission rates from the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exams. He said Bustamante High School only received 28 new students following the release of exam results, a decline from last year when the school got 47 students.

“Our numbers were normally in the 100 and something [range]. Pre-COVID-19 pandemic we had maybe 180 new students coming in, so that tells you where the population is going if we don’t see a change…The last two cohorts were significantly below what it used to be. The present grades eight and nine are the smallest cohorts, which represent a significant drop in strength.

“If we don’t get an increase next year then the school will definitely see up to, maybe, a 60 per cent drop in [the] population. We still have a bigger cohort in grades 10, 9, and 11, but if next year we don’t get a good cohort to replace those leaving, that would be a significant drop,” explained Evans.

He said Hurricane Melissa, though it was a disaster, is somewhat helping the school to boost its population as families relocate from hard-hit areas such as St Elizabeth and Westmoreland. He shared that, so far this year, the school has received 10 to 15 transfer requests and are hopeful they can get more requests to increase the population.

While the future of the institution is not looking too bright, Evans said administrators are not rolling over and calling it a loss.

“We cannot just sit back and allow the school to close. We are going all out to rebrand our school and to get our name up there to see if we can pull some of the traffic to make Bustamante High School a school that persons will want to send their children and that children will want to attend. We are definitely seeking and developing all of our programmes, the whole ambience of the school, and trying to get our name up there.

“At the end of the day — even though we know that the population has dropped — some schools are very full, and that means that we can still get a few from there to make it a little bit more equitable. But we have to make our name, because the children have to choose a school and nobody can force them to come to us,” he told the Sunday Observer.

He added: “We are developing our brand. And we are making sure that our children get the best opportunity in terms of the product that we offer as educators; and the expectations that they have in meeting their goals, and their interests, and developing their potential to become the kind of person that they can be in Jamaica and around the world. We definitely are not going to play dead, and we are going to make sure that Bustamante High School comes out on top,” he declared.