Pembroke Hall High hoping new programmes will help improve students' performance

 

Principal of Pembroke Hall High School Reverend Claude Ellis is hoping that programmes to be implemented by the Ministry of Education in primary schools come September will result in a turnaround in the literacy and numeracy skills of students entering the institution.

 

One of the programmes will result in reading becoming a timetabled subject for students from grades one to three. 

 

Reverend Ellis stressed that the interventions have to start at the early childhood level and continue onwards. 

 

Speaking Thursday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica, Reverend Ellis called for strategic programmes and not a knee-jerk reaction to the concerns which have been highlighted and reignited about literacy after it was revealed that the majority of grade seven students at the institution either are unable to read or are reading at or below the grade three level. 

 

"It's not a reaction where we try to say, boy, I blame you, I blame you, I blame you, I blame you and so on. What we need to do is to collaborate. We are talking about private sector, with Ministry of Education, the school community, the teachers who are already doing the best that they can, those teachers who are not doing as well as they should. We need to find a way to get everyone to understand that if we don't fix literacy and numeracy, our country that we want to see with this 2030 vision and beyond, it's not going to make it. And so we all have to collaborate," he urged. 

 

Reverend Ellis explained that the data presented about the grade seven students was collated early last year into this year after observing that the students were being disruptive in their classes. 

 

He said the root cause was frustration due to the inability to perform academically. 

 

Reverend Ellis said remedial programmes, including mandatory summer school, have borne fruit and will be continued.