Lauriston Lindsay, Principal of Happy Grove High Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
DILAPIDATED SCIENCE laboratories, poorly stocked libraries and poor examinations passes should soon be a thing of the past for several upgraded secondary schools across the island.
In at least one rural school, administrators say the assistance from both public and private sector should see better academic performance in upcoming
examinations.
Lauriston Lindsay, principal of Happy Grove High in Portland, says the school had regularly recorded poor examinations passes working with run-down or limited facilities.
"We were so frustrated. There were so many things that we wanted to do but couldn't. Our exam passes were not good. The school, for example, had one (science) laboratory, and so students and teachers had to be carrying things (equipment) to the classroom," he said.
Charlie Smith High School's Principal, Dennis Kelly recounts that the school's academic programmes suffered heavily. "We needed a more up to date library and reading rooms, science lab and more computers."
The Ministry's Secondary Enhancement Programme now provides funds to needy upgraded schools to allow for improvements. The schools are asked to identify problem areas and
submit applications for grants of up to $5 million depending on the size of the school and the
situation.
Mr. Lindsay said, "To date we have received funds ($4 million) specifically to work on our science programme, information technology, most importantly our reading programme and in the cultural area, especially music."
He said work was ongoing on the new resource areas but "everything should be in place by September. We will now have a science laboratory, fully functional computer room and extensive reading programme, for the new year. The results I know will be good, because already with the reading room the students have been soaking it up like a sponge."
NEW FURNITURE
Charlie Smith High School, has already purchased chairs and desks for the refurbished reading and computer rooms.
"There has been some truth to the talk that we (newly upgraded schools) would have been at a disadvantage but efforts have been made to level the playing field, and we are now in a better position," Mr. Kelly said.
He said the school also benefits from training sessions organised with private sector firms through the Ministry of Education.
"Persons have been coming in to talk with us on time-tabling, how to utilise the plant, maximising personnel, others have come in to offer management advice. We've also been working on plans for things like personal development and work ethics.
"The enhancement fund is now one of the good fortunes that has befallen us," he said.
Teachers at the Papine High School in Gordon Town, St. Andrew, say the situation has significantly improved.
"Before the funding we lacked good infrastructure," says Winston Jones, science teacher at the institution.
"The labs didn't have enough outlets so we had to be using very large groups for our experiments, so that where we should have three persons we were having groups with 10 or more.
"Then we didn't have a lab for Agricultural Science, so we would have to wait until a lab became free or take equipment from those labs and set them up in the classroom for sessions," he says.
"I just used what I had, because I thought it made no sense to get frustrated about the situation if we simply didn't have the resources."
Information and Technology teacher, Nichola Stephens, says that with over 30 students in a class with 15 machines, it often got very difficult.
The worst case she said were classes with as many as four students to one computer. "In fact, at one point we were just doing theory because we didn't get the computers until the middle of the term," she said.
The school received $8 million last year under the programme.
Mona High School's Principal, Earl Smith, says the school now boasts a refurbished science laboratory and upgraded library while goals for improvement in some subject areas have been surpassed.
"Without the funding we wouldn't have been able to manage. It has been extremely useful," he said. He says the reading programme has been strengthened to focus on the upper school where there is a problem.
ACADEMIC TARGETS
In addition the institution has met and exceeded academic targets of 60 per cent of students with passes over 60 per cent in English language. Mr. Smith credits this to the improved reading programme and a successful GSAT system.
"Every successive group of GSAT students has been better over the years. We now have students getting an overall average of 80 and over for a full year's work in 15 subjects, and that is really something."
The stories of woe had caused concern that the schools would not have been able to compete effectively with the traditional high schools.
"These secondary schools they are without funds, they need funds to be pumped into them to survive. One of the advantages of some of the traditional schools is that in many cases they have an Old Students' Association which can assist them in many respects, we have none," one senior teacher said.
"How could you reclassify them into a high school and not improve the physical infrastructure or provide resources to make them on par with traditional high schools, and then demand that we perform at the same level.
"If we are given the tools then I don't think we would have much of a problem because we have the same teachers," he said. "... the environment must be conducive to learning."
Ministry of Education officials had then put in place a programme to assist the schools. In January, $75 million in cheques was handed over to 17 newly upgraded secondary school principals for their enhancement programme, while in 2002, (its first year), 21 schools received about $200 million.
"This programme is a way of ensuring we have one standard (for all schools)," said Minister Henry-Wilson.
The aim of the programme is to improve newly upgraded high schools and to initiate and enhance the management of their funds. The programme also aims at closing the gap between the newly upgraded schools and traditional high schools in terms of the programmes they offer.
Reports from the National Council on Education's study, (Performance of Jamaican Students in the Caribbean Examinations Council 2002) are that the schools have also been making significant strides.
Of the 36,830 students enrolled in fifth form last year the upgraded high schools accounted for 55 per cent, the highest proportion of the total enrolment.
The schools had more mathematics passes in 2002 moving to 16 per cent from 11 per cent last year. Passes in English language, also improved for 2002 by four per cent to 38 per cent.
