Petrina Francis, Education Reporter

THE MINISTRY of Education will be
implementing a new strategy to address the plight of the nearly 3,000 Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT) students who were not placed in high schools.

Dorrett Campbell, director of communications at the Education Ministry, told The Gleaner that the Ministry has identified
several strategic learning centres within all-age, primary and junior high schools for students who did not meet the required score to be placed in high schools.

She noted that the Ministry had also identified specialist teachers to help the students in continuing their education with a view to absorbing them into the secondary system eventually.

The initiative ­ expected to last for three years ­ will have a minimum of 25 students and a maximum of 150 at each centre depending on the size of the facility. In addition, Ms. Campbell noted that the student/teacher classroom ratio will be no more than 25 students to one teacher.

FINE-TUNING STAGE

Ms. Campbell could not say when the initiative would get off the ground, noting that the Ministry was still pretty much in what she called the fine-tuning stage. She also said that 77 students in regions three and four who were not placed initially have now been placed into secondary schools.

In August, The Gleaner reported that more than a quarter of the students who sat the GNAT exams were not placed in high schools. Of the 9,361 students who sat the test, 6,086 were placed. The figures also indicated that 381 more were absent from the exams this year when compared to last year.

Wentworth Gabbidon, Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) president, had suggested in August that the Government could look at lowering the admittance age to the HEART institutions, as part of the solution to provide continuing education for the students who were not placed in high schools.

However, Robert Gregory, executive director of the HEART Trust/NTA, rejected the suggestion and said that the JTA and the Government would have to find other means of dealing with the problem affecting the displaced 15-year-olds.

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