Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer
National Security Minister Peter Phillips greets students from Charlie Smith High School.
Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer
Dr. Peter Phillips, one of the candidates for the presidency of the governing People's National Party (PNP) wants to see an expansion of boarding school opportunities in Jam-aican high schools, as one option for confronting some of the country's social problems.
boarding school experience
A product of the boarding school experience Jamaica College Dr. Phillips, in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, asserted that he remained "committed to the idea of the boarding school, for many reasons."
The boarding school experience, he contended, was "a great social leveller: The child of the millionaire and the child of the sugar worker could come together in the boarding situation and form a common identity, as the school system was opened up. That common identity," he claimed, "was the cement that kept the society together and stopped the social fissures."
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Since the 1960's when Dr. Peter Phillips and others of his generation attended high school, most of those institutions have closed their boarding facilities, making space for more classrooms to accommodate additional students.
Today there is substantial boarding at only five schools: Munro College and Hampton High in St. Elizabeth; Knox College in Manchester, Westwood High in Trelawny; and St. Hilda's High in St. Ann.
There is support for the argument that boarding schools provide an enhanced learning environment.
Dr. Dennis Minott, CEO of the A-QuEST organisation (Association of Quietly Excellent Scholars and Thinkers), recently presented compelling arguments in favour of expanding boarding school places.
A-QuEST, in its last study of school performance at the CSEC and CAPE exams, found that the boarding schools were among the best performers.
The three boarding schools for girls - Westwood, Hampton and St. Hilda's were in the top 12 performers, nationally, at CSEC, while Munro, the only male boarding institution, placed 13th of the 386 schools studied and number one among all boys' schools.
At the CAPE level, the performance of the schools were evaluated against a common set of indicators, and, according to Dr. Minott, "the graph is completely different for boarding schools".
There are many reasons for this, Dr. Minott suggests, "including the fact that their students do not drop out while their performance goes up. They are way out of the league of the other schools including the co-ed schools."
Dr. Phillips, who as Minister of National Security, has had to struggle with the consequences of poor socialisation opportunities for many of the country's youth, recalled that boarding schools used to compensate, in large measure, for the poor home environment from which some students came. These were homes, he said, in which there was no one around reading books on a regular basis, and no settled place where they could do homework in their communities in which they lived. Those who benefited from the boarding school experience, he said, "they were able to transform their own reality".
A-QuEST is recommending the introduction of boarding at schools, across the island, starting with the parishes of St, Thomas, Hanover, Portland Westmoreland and Clarendon, with boarders accounting for at least 20 per cent of the school population.
"At the typical boarding school there is far greater contact between the teachers and the students, many of whom live right there on campus and gives much of their own time, furthermore the teacher who teaches at boarding school are far more settled there," said Dr. Minott.
But even as he sings the praises of the boarding school option, Dr. Phillips acknowledges that the high costs associated with what is still considered an elite system by some, would place a considerable constraint on the ability of the state to fully fund the initiative.
As part of the answer to that dilemma, he said he would encourage the involvement of school alumni in providing scholarships, while the state would "ensure that the benefits are not just accorded on the basis on who can pay, so we're going to need to have enough scholarships for those who want it and who merit it."
