- Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Walton Small, principal of Ancovy High and Alphansus Davis, principal of Spaldings High school at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum.
On Wednesday, November 26, The Gleaner's Editors' Forum hosted the president and members of the Association of Principals and Vice Principals. They were Stanley Skeene, president of the Association and principal of May Day High, Alphansus Davis, immediate past president of the association and principal of the Spaldings High School; and Hopeton Henry, vice-president and principal of Seaforth High School and counter representative; Dr. Walton Small, principal, Anchovy High...
STANLEY SKEENE:
Preident and Principal May Day High
WHAT WE have found, is that many people have the wrong perception of this Association. We are duly formed to identify issues in education, analyse these issues, inform the general public and we are happy for this occasion because this is the first step in informing the public what we are doing and to let them know also of the calibre of input and then they could compare with the quality of the output. What we find is that there are those who are comparing apples with bananas. You see, student intake is still hinged on the Common Entrance system where certain students, those who have been considered to be top performers are creamed off and sent to traditional high schools whereas in the past, our type schools were built mainly to accept students who failed Common Entrance.
Now that we have all been reclassified and all secondary schools are termed high schools, we believe it should be a level playing field and the same quality of students sent to the traditional schools must be the same quality sent to the reclassified schools. Then and only then you are justified in your comparison when it comes to the results of examinations.
If you take a student in the reclassified high school who was reading at three grade levels below first form but, when that child graduates, the child is reading at say second form grade level, that would be an excellent move on the part of our schools in getting value added to that child's performance. But this is not taken into consideration when performance is being assessed. One needs to look at the value added component of our schools. Our schools are not only performing academically, they are doing well in their aesthetics, and they should be commended rather than castigated.
ALPHANSUS DAVIS:Principal, Spaldings High
WE ARE concerned that the perception in the public domain is that these schools are not performing and we are concerned that if we allow these statements to be repeated often enough, then very soon people will come to believe that these statements are true. We are concerned that at a period of time when our schools are beginning to gain acceptance in the public domain, that any commentary, or any publication which would suggest that we are not performing would seek to change the minds or thoughts that are there in the parents who have been seeing a difference, it would seek to change their acceptance of these schools.
What we are seeing now is a change in perception from what it was five years ago. Five years ago when students were placed in our schools based on the GSAT scores, parents whether the children did well or not, believed that the fact that they did GSAT meant everybody passed. Therefore, whether the children did well or not, the view was that the children had passed G-SAT, once the children were placed in these upgrade and should be placed in traditional high schools. Parents therefore wanted to transfer their children to traditional high schools.
We have been working as an Association over the past five years to correct a perception that these schools are underperforming schools and we can boast today that for the majority of us, parents are no longer seeking transfers from our schools based on the perception that we are not performing. Instead, if a request is made for a transfer, the request is made based on the child's geographical location and to us it means that the level of acceptance that we have been seeking is being achieved.
DR. WALTON SMALL:
Principal, Anchovy High
I DON'T want to use the word upgraded, I rather use the word reclassified, upgraded would give the impression that something was done to lift the standard of these schools. To be fair though I can say that some schools have received benefits in terms of lifting the quality of the labs and classroom space;
but most of them have not received anything.
ON STUDENTS PERFORMANCE
ALPHANSUS DAVIS:
RECENTLY THERE were some comparisons in the papers as to performance and sad to say that the yardstick used for measuring performance was the CXC results. I want to put it to you that over 80% of the children that we get are reading far below the Grade 7 level when they come in. But after we have had them for five years and have worked with them we bring them up to a level where they can do exams, by the time the five years expire the majority would have reached maybe Grade 9 level. You cannot enter Grade 9 children for CXC exams, they would not have been able to even start the CXC curriculum; therefore, we need to look in terms of performance and in terms of value-added education. Value-added education not only in the upgraded high schools, but value-added at the secondary level because in the traditional high schools their weakest students are our brightest students; and there are many of them who have failed their weakest students and when they fail at the traditional high school level, they are excluded from school and they are told go find another school and the other school is the upgraded high school.
DR. WALTON SMALL:
I would like to put some numbers to what was just said. The perception is that the - I will say at this point that we are asking for better quality students but before they can even consider giving us those better quality students they have to first of all put in place the resources necessary for the acceptance of these students that we are asking for.
I have compared the performance of some traditional high schools with some reclassified schools. Let's take for example Montego Bay High School, traditional high school in Montego Bay. In the 2002 GSAT scores for Mathematics, there were no students scoring between 50 or 60; no students scored between 61 or 70; four students scored between 71 and 80; 54 scored between 81 and 90 and 113 scored between 91 and 100.
This is a typical traditional high school, these are the scores that they get for the students in a traditional high school. Let us look at the English Language scores for Montego Bay High - no students scored between 50 and 80; 73 scored between 81 and 90 and 98 scored between 91 and 100. Now, you see what is happening there, that these traditional high schools are getting what some refer to as the cream of the crop.
Let us look at the GSAT scores for Little London, a reclassified school. In English Language, of 204 students, 23 students scored between 50 and 60; one scored between 71 and 80, none scored between 81 and 100 while 23 students scored between 50 and 60 only one scored between 71 and 80, this is the top student for the reclassified school.
It is absolutely clear that if we use 50 as the benchmark for traditional high schools remembering how Montego Bay High scored, it will show that most of them scored between 80 and 90, so then 100% of the students can be prepared for CXC, same with Cornwall College, same thing with Manning.
But if you look at Godfrey Stewart, 48.3%, Cambridge 44%, Little London 17.6%, Spaldings 38.8%, that is for English. I am saying that the scrutiny should not be on the reclassified high schools, the scrutiny should be on the traditional high schools who get 100% students scoring well above the benchmark.
CODE OF REGULATION FOR TEACHERS
HOPETON HENRY:
Principal, Seaforth High
RECENTLY, IT was reported that the Minister of Education, Youth and Culture Maxine Henry Wilson was purported to have said that the newly-revised Code of Regulations of 1980 is currently in draft stage and that they will be looking at the conduct of teachers outside of the classroom. Now, with the 1965 Code of Regulations, anybody could report the teacher to the school, it stated that information from any source and the process for dismissing a teacher could be initiated on the basis of a report even if the person is anonymous. Which could trigger a dismissal. In the 1980 Code of Regulations which was a much more democratic Code, I can recall then that a Commission was set up and various stakeholders had input into the discussions leading up to the enactment of that Code of Regulations and as a result sections like these which were really repugnant, these sections were removed, and hence the current Code of Regulations we are using is much more democratic as it relates to grievance procedure and things like that. Now, immediately after the publication and the statement which was made by the Minister, the Prime Minister in the handing over of two completed classroom blocks at Maud McLeod stated that the Government is about to enact legislation to look at the conduct of teachers after school. The conclusion from this, therefore, is that some amount of thought, some amount of discussion, some amount of consensus is being built on this. What is critical here is that the current draft is not readily available and you can test this by going to the Ministry to ask for this consequently, the discussion that is supposed to take place on this draft is not being done. We would very much like to see the approach taken before the enactment of the 1980 Code be taken now as it relates to this draft. We would also like to see before closure is brought to any semblance of 'discussion', that we need an opening up to present this draft document to all the stakeholders in the system - that's what is going to be critical. In the early 70's, before the '80 Code was enacted, a teacher from Brown's Hall Secondary, I can recall, was dismissed for eating sugar cane on the road. What we are saying here professional misconduct after school, I think the laws of the country, legislation is there to deal with misdemeanour, the breaking of the laws of a country. What this is going to be encouraging is very serious witch-hunt, I mean if somebody in the school community doesn't like Dr. Small, somebody can actually stalk him, somebody can actually write a report on him and you could find that people even anonymous sources who would say he saw the teacher in a compromising position--this is something that cannot be allowed. As one teacher put it in a letter, we have to cut out the spying on teachers and some of us have been victims of this kind of spying and stalking. I think things have improved a lot in terms of teachers' professional conduct. You have a lot of young teachers coming out of the system, they are highly qualified, highly professional and therefore, the emphasis in our view here is sidetracking from the real issues and the real problems out there like violence in the schools. Some schools are virtual battle grounds so we need to look at these very, very serious issues which should be treated on a priority basis and remove the clause in the draft.
STANLEY SKEENE:
JUST YESTERDAY an education officer told me of a situation where an anonymous lady called to report on a principal, that that principal is a thief, 'Why do you say this' he asked, 'Well him teck out all the money out of the school, there is no money to run the school"; "Are you a teacher there?"
"No, I am a parent," "So what is the Board doing about it?" he asked
"I don't know, sir, but him just start build one house" and it just goes to show how they will make mischief on people.
STANLEY SKEENE: President SSC Exams
THE SSC is preparing them for entry in the tertiary institutions and for the world of work, because if you can leave high school with 1 grade point average in four subjects, you are eligible to enter teacher's college and other tertiary institutions, community colleges and so on, but because of the late publication of the SSC results, it has lost its credibility and the parents are just as upset as we are. Having done the examination, it takes some time, up to a year for the students to get the results. We have not yet received the results for 2003.
In June and we have been asking the Minister repeatedly, let us get the results by the latest September and every year they promise and promise. Last year it was very bad, we got them in January/February and this year it seems to be going back to the same level.
And the students are waiting on those to top up what they have achieved otherwise. If anything else, the majority of them are awaiting the SSC results to move on. On the other hand, the public out there, by and large are not accepting the SSC as we were expecting them.
ALPHANSUS DAVIS
IN ADDITION to that, not even the very Ministry which sets the exam lists that exam as any qualification for any post in the Government Service.
STANLEY SKEENE:
ALL OUR students in the reclassified schools sit the SSC exams. We are talking of over approximately 16,000 students and these students are not now sitting the exam with any excitement because it is putting their career on hold for a year. They treat it meaninglessly, they give scant regard to the exam. Just to add to this, there is a new examination on stream, the ROSE Exam, the Junior High School Certificate Examination, this is done by our high schools as well, all all-age schools, all junior high schools. Funding is put in place for markers to mark the examination, if you didn't want the eyes of the public to see that there was a bias in the SSC and anything else you may conjure from that, put funding in place and get markers to go and sit and mark it and show the country that you really have this examination at heart for our nation's poorest set of children and so you can conclude, by comparing, why is not resources put in place to give this examination more prominence in the society. Right now, the plan is to phase out SSC and to bring in what is called a common high school diploma, it is called the expanded curriculum in some areas and we are debating such an issue right now, because we don't know if it is just going to be another SSC in a different shape and form.
PRIMARY EDUCATION
DR. WALTON SMALL:
IF WE have to offer remedial work at the high school, something is wrong, they need to stop paying lip service and put resources in the primary schools, they need to go and find where these students are coming from and give them some help. I mean you go into this classroom, 70 students, one teacher, that doesn't make any sense.
Right now at the primary level, when the teacher has so many children in front of him or her, they are just teaching the average child, so the very fast child is left out and the very slow child is left out. I mean you will find one or two teachers who will go the extra mile to prepare enriched work for these other students, faster students but generally when a teacher has 70 students in front of him he is teaching the average child, and that is where the problem lies.
STANLEY SKEENE:
IN FAIRNESS to the Ministry of Education, they have what is called the Secondary School Enhancement Programme in our type schools which is to focus on literacy, science, computer and library. But there are no capital works and basically when you look at it we all need capital works in terms of the lighting, in terms of the science labs, and the computer labs and otherwise. If we are indeed all classified as high schools, then we need to take the step and give everybody the same quality. They are also having in place training for teachers and they are doing some distance programme now, but we are saying it is taking too long a time for them to really upgrade these facilities and train these teachers so in many of our schools, we have on an average 50% or even more of our teachers who are trained graduates.
COST SHARING
ALPHANSUS DAVIS:Principal, Spaldings High
IF WE look on the whole question of financing, we look at placement, we look at how it is skewed, I did an article and it shows this, in the traditional high schools the criteria for entry is performance, in the reclassified school the criteria is age, it is not based on performance at all, is age. When we look at cost sharing for example as it is now, we are at the lower end of fees being charged, we are not allowed to charge the same level of fees as the traditional high schools, so we are hearing at this time that come 2005, cost sharing will go, and we have a concern, a very serious concern.
HOPETON HENRY:
JUST TO add quickly relating to the hypothesis that you have raised here, if you look at the schools - when the shift system was introduced, it was a numbers thing, if you look at the schools that are currently on shift and you were to draw the line between reclassified schools and traditional high schools you would get a picture, a feel as it relates to that because when you are on a shift system, as it relates to enrichment programmes, co-curricular activities, there are some things that you are really restricted in doing; you end school at 2:00/2:30 and you can do the speech, the drama, the cadet and so on, in the shift schools, the bulk of the reclassified schools are the shift schools, you do not have holding areas, so when an afternoon shift student comes, the parent has to go to work, they just let them out on the street early and they are actually on the road until school starts at 12:00, around there or the game shop and all of those areas, there is no holding area in school, nobody to supervise meaningfully in that given holding area, and after school also, there is absolutely no space for these enrichment activities and so you know you suffer.
A QUESTION OF SOCIALISATION:
ALPHANSUS DAVIS:
YOU KNOW what worries me, how we treat the less fortunate in our society. The system is heavily skewed towards the privileged. I cannot understand how you take a child from a primary school and you say you are giving the child secondary education then send the child to an all-age school which is not equipped at all to offer secondary education and what you find, it is the children of the poor who are so transgressed. I have to support my Minister, Honourable Maxine Henry-Wilson on the issue of placement in schools as we are building elitist institutions and we are building at the lower end other institutions which take care of the children of the poor. It speaks to socialisation which is critical, no wonder we are locking up so early in the nights you know, you think it is the prisoners who are behind bars, it is the law abiding citizens, we are behind bars 6:00 o'clock every night and it speaks to that level of socialisation and until we can get it right in this country, we will eternally have this crime problem.
DR. WALTON SMALLPrincipal, Anchovy High
DIFFERENT SCHOOLS have different methods but at some schools, what they do if they find a child who is extremely weak, they don't keep that child in the regular class, the child is taken out and goes through the reading programme and when that child is showing improvement, because he is given special attention, so when that child has attained a particular level, then they are filtered back into the system, that is how it is done.
WHAT OF OUR BOYS?
HOPETON HENRY
WE HAVE an interesting situation at Seaforth High School. I went there in September 1999 and up to April 2000 we had 106 suspensions for disciplinary problems and when we looked at the forms, the grades that these students were coming from, 90% were boys and all these students who were suspended were at the lower end of performance and when we looked seriously at it and debated it, we instituted the other year what we referred to as Reading Week and out of that we developed a reading programme, we have a reading room, we developed a strong reading programme and we start to put more money every year, invest more money into the reading programme. What we actually did was for one month, one entire month, we prepared teachers in seminar type activities, like we bring in the JAMAL people, how you teach the young adults, we bring in the specialist from Mico Care and all of these people, one month of seminar and we shut down all the other programmes for one week, and everybody in the school targeted those slower boys especially. We have other kinds of competition for those faster students like the spelling competition, the reading competition and so on but we try to get those boys especially to be able to read and there is greater acceptance because hitherto there was this stigma attached to going into the reading room, you have reading specialist, people who are doing well, so apart from groups which are targeted to go into that room, you have students who will just go in and read, just look at the material there, go in, take books just like how they would go into a library so because of the emphasis on it and how it is treated, the level of sensitivity, we are able to develop a good thing and what we have done is to look at what other schools have been doing, schools that have been successful in this and extracting to put in our programme..
VENDING AT THE SCHOOL GATES
YVONNE KONG:
THE MAIN problem I have though is the vendors and their litter. Just this morning and that is why I am late, I had a problem because they have created a garbage at the very entrance of the school gate. I said to them you know that Riverton City is the Corporate Area dump where garbage is disposed of and this is what you have created and I am telling them that they can't sell there. Now they are saying I am taking bread away from them and so on. They are selling and I know for a fact that they are selling the children Red Label Wine, Dragon Stout, they are selling them Peenie-Wallie, I am just hearing of some of the names, they are selling them spliff, they are selling them ritzler and if they are getting ritzler, they are getting the stuff. Those are my major problems although my children are doing very well. If you take the children who are the average, if I get 100, 80 of them are getting under 30 in any subject, we are talking about English, Maths, to zero and yet still we get them to pass CXC to the point where I am going to get two CXC Awards, it's not official but I know for sure, I am going to get two.
I have children passing Spanish at Level 1 General proficiency; I have children passing Integrated Science at Grade 1, History at Grade 1, children who came in can't read and are able to do History and get a 1 and I am not talking about one person, several of them are operating at that level, so we do a good job, all we need is the resources to do better. The first set of students I got from G-SAT, one boy got in the 70's for everything and he got 10 for Communication Task while all the other 84, I got 94 and 84 of those got zero. That one boy was able to do 4 CXC in Grade 10 and passed all four, with 1 for English and 1 for Social Studies so you can imagine if you give us the resources what we can do with the children we have and if you give us 30, we are not telling you that you must give us the whole of our children bright, but at least give us a class of 30 children to work with, if we have 30 of those children, 30 would be able to do the CXC at Grade 10 and get ones too.
