Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Expansion expenses balloon as mandatory Pathways era looms

Rush to retrofit classrooms for mandatory Pathways era

Published:Thursday | August 25, 2022 | 12:08 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Norman Rose, Seaforth High’s sixth-form programme coordinator, shows a newly constructed classroom for students exiting grade 11 without sufficient Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate passes.
Norman Rose, Seaforth High’s sixth-form programme coordinator, shows a newly constructed classroom for students exiting grade 11 without sufficient Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate passes.
Guidance counsellor Angela Barrows-Osbourne says there are specific strategies to help guide students at Seaforth High.
Guidance counsellor Angela Barrows-Osbourne says there are specific strategies to help guide students at Seaforth High.
Vice-principal Sonia Aiken says Seaforth High should be ready for the new academic year that starts next month.
Vice-principal Sonia Aiken says Seaforth High should be ready for the new academic year that starts next month.
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With the Sixth Form Pathways Programme becoming mandatory in a matter of days for thousands of former 11th-graders, schools are scrambling to retrofit spaces to accommodate larger populations. That is already running administrations millions of...

With the Sixth Form Pathways Programme becoming mandatory in a matter of days for thousands of former 11th-graders, schools are scrambling to retrofit spaces to accommodate larger populations.

That is already running administrations millions of dollars in new investment costs.

One such rural school is Seaforth High, tucked away in Blacksmith Lane, St Thomas.

Administrators have had to transform the principal's residential quarters on the grounds into new sixth-form classrooms and offices for teachers at the double-shift school.

Additionally, the veranda and other wings of the house were expanded and new walls rendered and extended on to another building at the back of the school to accommodate the new classes.

Norman Rose, sixth-form coordinator at Seaforth High, told The Gleaner Tuesday that the new infrastructure is about 90 per cent ready, and incoming students are expected to start classes during the third week of September.

Rose said Seaforth had implemented two Pathways phases in the last academic year but was now making room for the third node of the academic programme.

He said that more than 100 students have indicated a desire to return in September, but the school will not be able to facilitate all applicants because of space constraints.

“We will have to look for some of the community colleges adjoining to send some students there,” Rose said.

“Already, the motor repairs classes for the Pathway 1 segment of the new Sixth Form Pathways Programme at Seaforth High School is oversubscribed, given that students will pass after they pass their driver's licence test,” he added.

Sonia Aiken, the vice-principal, said that the cohort of students sitting the previous edition of Caribbean Examinations Council exams had scored a 100 per cent pass rate for art.

Carey Kelly, principal of Paul Bogle High, also in St Thomas, says his school is still in preparation mode for the Sixth Form Pathways Programme.

Registration commences next week Friday, he disclosed.

“At the present moment, we are playing a wait-and-see game because what really happened is after COVID, we couldn't find a lot of our students, so in a couple weeks, we will be able to know the numbers,” Kelly said.

He cautioned that some students may not opt to enrol in the Sixth Form Pathways Programme. Many, he said, were buoyed by a streak of independence and were determined to get a job and generate an income to improve their standard of living.

Guidance counsellor Angela Barrows-Osbourne said that Seaforth had not suffered a fallout in student attendance as occurred at many schools when classroom doors were closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fewer than 100 students, from the 1,325 population, went missing from online classes.

To reach those students, staff and a social worker conducted house visits as part of the Ministry of Education and Youth's Yard-to-Yard, Find the Child initiative.

“We worked collaboratively, but they (the ministry) were the main players. They did a lot of work, and so that helped with bringing down the numbers,” Barrows-Osbourne told The Gleaner.

“The numbers went down significantly after we did the Yard-to-Yard.”

The local police also pitched in.

More than 17,000 students islandwide have pre-registered for the sixth-form programme for 2022-2023.

In April this year, 19,122 students were enrolled in the programme.

The Ministry of Education is also using the Pathways programme as a learning loss mitigation strategy for students who left grade 11 in June 2021 with significantly reduced scholastic levels.

However, the programme has been criticised in some quarters, with the parliamentary Opposition arguing that the programme is unsustainable.

Speaking at the Jamaica Teachers' Association's 58th Annual Conference in Montego Bay Wednesday, Education Minister Fayval Williams said there is need to fast-track implementation of recommendations to improve standards.

She cited the report issued by the Orlando Patterson-led Jamaica Education Transformation Commission and the naming of an Education Transformation Oversight Committee headed by Dr Adrian Stokes as signals of intent of the Holness administration.

“Will we continue to deliberate, or will we begin the process of implementation so that another 18 years does not catch us comparing this time with another 18 years and bemoaning the fact that we have not implemented the recommendations?” asked Williams.

“The ministry exists to help, not to hinder.”

Christopher Thomas contributed to this story.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com