As the 2020/2021 school year reaches its midway point, school administrators are worried that students who are already behind from the previous academic year will need more time to catch up and still be able to complete the school curriculum before going on summer break in June.

High school principals in St Elizabeth and St James, who spoke with the Jamaica Observer last week, are therefore making a case for there to be an extension of the school year to allow teachers to make up for lost time.

Principal of Maggotty High School in St Elizabeth Sean Graham expressed grave concern that the emphasis on online learning has meant that a majority of students at the institution who did not have access to Internet or mobile devices would not have had consistent engagement online since schools were ordered closed in March last year.

Graham said that since the beginning of the school term last October, the school is only now returning some students to face-to-face classes, primarily students in grades 11 to 13 who are scheduled to sit external CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) exams this year.

Furthermore, Graham said that challenges with getting students to adhere to COVID-19 safety protocols have all but slowed down the resumption of face-to-face classes even more, putting teachers further behind in the curriculum.

“We just returned to face-to-face this week, and so far it has been going well. There are challenges with the social distancing and the mask-wearing on the part of the students. There are challenges with how students get to school, the transportation they are taking, what’s happening when they are off the school’s campus,” he said last week.

“These are big concerns,” Graham continued, “because we have observed that many times they will obey the guidelines and the protocols while they are on the school grounds, but as soon as they go through the gate, it’s a different matter.

“However, my issue is that there are many students who would have missed out on a lot and not just academics, but in terms of social interaction and co-curricular programmes and the development of their whole person.

“Given what is happening with COVID, there was a dependence on online learning and because of that we have not properly reached a number of students. I think that extending the school year [will] provide that bit of support to reach those students,” said Graham.

He explained that as many as 1,000 students at the St Elizabeth-based high school were being consistently engaged in online classes. Graham stressed that there was a need for face-to-face engagement in order to fill this gap.

“From my experience, and as an institution, we were not effectively meeting the educational needs of probably more than a thousand students. It was a challenge because I don’t believe online learning by itself is effective. It needs a balance of face-to-face interaction so that we can see and identify the students.

“I am very happy to have the students back in for face-to-face because at least now we have them in the controlled environment to inculcate some things in them so that when they go to the online space we are able to hold them accountable.

“Students who are sitting external exams, grades 11, 12 and 13 students who are in for face-to-face every day, and every day in the week we take another grade on a rotational basis,” said the Maggotty High School principal, who suggested extending the school year by at least two weeks.

“Mind you, it is something that would have to be studied and would have to be collaborative. It is not something that I would recommend to be done without any discussion with teachers and school administrators. It is something that has to be done thoughtfully and something that has to be done in a way that is not onerous and detrimental on the mental health and the capacity of the members of staff as they seek to support the students.

“In my view, I am seeing some system that is set in place, probably a week or two in July that is set aside to enhance students’ learning, especially if it is a case where the virus is under control, where they can come in for face-to-face to get additional support,” Graham said.

Principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Keith Wellington is also in support of cutting the summer break to facilitate an extension of the school term.

“Rather than the eight weeks that students normally get for summer, I am proposing that a maximum of four weeks be given for summer. I would say we don’t break for summer until the end of July. I think, despite the fact that students are online, there is much need for students to be engaged face to face. If we can get more time to allow students to be involved in some of the activities that require face-to-face, then we should do so,” Wellington told the Observer last week.

The STETHS principal explained that, while the school had resumed face-to-face classes in October, 90 per cent of student engagement remained online.

“What we have noticed is that students are not consistently in classes but they are engaged online. So, for example, over a one-week period a child who used to attend four classes is now only attending half of those class sessions. Most students are attending some online classes.

“When we do face-to-face classes, we have more than 90 per cent of students attending the classes,” Wellington stated further.

“I am, however, not in support of extending the school year if we are not able to have face-to-face classs, because I don’t think it makes sense for us to prolong the online learning when most are not able to attend or just not attending online classes.

“So my support of the extension of the school year is that we go deeper into the summer before closing for holidays and that it would be on the condition that students are able to attend face-to-face classes,” said Wellington.

Principal of the Montego Bay-based Mount Alvernia High School Kayon Whyne said that, while the school has seen near 100 per cent student engagement for both online and face-to-face classes combined, students were still strapped for time with completing lab work and other practical exam requirements, with teachers having to play catch-up on the weekends.

“We would have lost a considerable amount of actual teaching and learning time, and if an extension could be granted we wouldn’t mind as educators, because our students would benefit from this. Instead of playing catch-up next year, we would have got the opportunity to cover most of the school curriculum during the summer months,” said Whyne.

“While some schools might have been faced with greater challenges with Internet connectivity, at Mount Alvernia it would not have been so bad.

“Our engagement with students here at Mount Alvernia with both online and face-to-face combined is almost at 100 per cent. However, we are behind with our science labs and other practical areas. We have to be using some weekends, and the teachers are so good in using their weekends to play catch-up. What we do also here at Mount Alvernia is double up, so you find us working overtime in the evenings.

“I would say extend the school year to probably just the three weeks in July. By the end of July I think we should be to complete the curriculum and finish all exam requirements,” Whyne said.