IT was an education catastrophe that needed the urgent resource sourcing and unfunded intervention of educators at Denham Town High School.

With grade seven to 11 students reading at the grade one level, there was an arresting need for the administration to go beyond the call of duty and source additional resources to get them up to par.

“In terms of literacy we have a huge, massive challenge. We test all grade seven to nine students and then we group them and place them in classes based on their learning profile; and we find that 97 per cent of the students or intake is reading below grade level,” Principal Donovan Hunter told the Jamaica Observer, noting that he is certain it is not an issue unique to Denham Town High.

“There are schools across the island right now that are having similar challenges,” he added.

To retrofit the academic situation, last year the North Street, west Kingston-based insitution introduced a “positive” literacy programme which plays a vital role in transforming the students.

“We have partnered with Lindamood-Bell and Creative Language-Based [Learning] situated in Jamaica right now. And so, on our campus we have a pullout literacy programme for the students who are really reading below the grade one level,” Hunter said.

Within the programme there are students up to the fifth form level who have to be taught from a beginner’s level. However, Hunter noted that mostly grade seven to nine students populate the classes.

“When I when I walk through and talk with the literacy coordinator and so on, and just interact with persons, it’s set up in a way that a teacher has five to six students at his or her table. The teachers have to be trained… we have about 22 teachers trained right now,” he told the Sunday Observer.

The classes are offered during regular school time, causing the school to revamp the order to the school day.

“We have to change the way we do timetabling. When they told me that things have to change, I scratched my head and wondered how it will be done because it can’t be regular school as usual. We have to do it differently, and so teachers who are trained and are a part of the reading literacy programme, they would have 30, 40 students in front of them,” Hunter explained.

“They have five, six, at a table and they have to engage them individually at that table for the 40-minute session and use resources by the same persons I mentioned — Lindamood-Bell and Creative Language-Based [Learning].”

Additional teacher training becomes absolutely necessary, Hunter said, because an educator at the secondary level wouldn’t have been exposed to skills needed for dealing with students at a primary level in terms of their ability.

“If you’re doing secondary education you don’t get this training at the secondary level. I don’t think you even get this kind of training at a primary level. Students are now learning to visualise and learning to pronounce letter sounds — that’s where we’re at,” he explained.

But the teachers’ sacrifices continue to prove worthwhile.

“We’re eating food; there are testimonials coming out of it from parents and students. Also, we see the improvement in students. And it affects their performance outside of the literacy and reading programme in such a positive way that now, we don’t necessarily have to read exam papers for some of them,” he told the Sunday Observer. “They say, ‘Sir, it is alright. I can read it.’ They are more focused. They will sit down and do the work. They are not idle again and all over the place.”

The literacy programme is completely spearheaded by the school outside of resources provided by the Ministry of Education, through the afore-mentioned partnership with Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes and Creative Language-Based Learning.

The Creative Language-Based Learning objective is to develop an islandwide network of early childhood and special needs teachers skilled in diagnosing the impact sensory cognitive deficits have on a child’s learning ability, and tackling these deficits with process-based instruction. The goal is to enable educators to support all young learners in reaching their potential, regardless of learning styles or learning challenges.

Hunter added:, “The literacy coordinator who we would’ve selected last year and the person who’s working with him, they are the ones who came to me and said ‘Sir, can we get sponsorship?’ So they’ve been on the road seeking sponsorship for the programme and some sponsors have been coming in, thank God.”

But it’s not about imparting knowledge. Hunter told the Sunday Observer that the programme considers students’ overall well-being as a first step before literacy training goals can be met.

“Students can’t learn on empty stomach so once they come, if they are not fed they’re not going to sit down comfortably to learn anything and to be engaged so companies have come on board — and I thank God for what they are putting in. This programme will go right until the end of the school year,” Hunter informed.

Still, Hunter said as educators they are nevertheless left with one question, “How do we reward them in terms of incentives?”

“They love the rewards. Last year some of them, they got a football… that sort of thing. Right now I think we have some gem-like stones, and after responding to some of the questions in class and participating, then they are given something. To have a programme like this in a school is going to cost a lot, and we’re looking forward to persons just hearing what is happening and coming on board and assisting,” he said.