Faltering academics spur Calabar standoff

Poor academic performance at Calabar High School appears to be at the centre of the impasse between stakeholder groups and the school’s administration after fewer than 50 per cent of students attained quality passes in key subjects in last year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

Except for English A (language) where 73 per cent of students attained grades one or two passes and 97 per cent attained grades one to three, quality passes (grades one or two) in some STEM subjects ranged from 39 per cent to 14 per cent of students sitting the exams.

An internal assessment report compiled by the Excellence in Education Committee of the school’s parent-teacher association sent to the board in September outlined the “chronic weaknesses in the boys’ academic performance” and called for a different approach for improvement.

Of the 238 students who sat the English A exam, 51 received grade one passes, 123 received grade two passes, and 58 attained grade three passes.

However, of the 265 students who sat mathematics, only 20 per cent attained quality passes while 56 per cent attained passes from grades one to three. The report said that seven students attained grade one passes, 46 attained grade two passes, and 96 attained grade three passes.

For biology, only three students received grade one passes; eight, grade two passes; and 15, grade three passes. Overall passes for the subject, which 61 boys sat, amounted to 43 per cent while quality passes totalled 18 per cent.

Seventy per cent of the 77 students who sat the chemistry exam passed with grades one, two, or three, but only 39 per cent had quality passes. A further breakdown showed that 12 students attained grade one passes; 18, grade two; and 24, grade three.

Of the 70 students who sat physics, only five attained grade one passes, and, similarly, only five attained grade two passes. Twenty-three attained grade three passes with the overall passes wrapping at 47 per cent. Quality passes were just 14 per cent.

The committee concluded that the level of performance was not unexpected given the grade average of 47.5 per cent for Grade 11 students on the summer term report.

The report, signed by chair of the committee Dr George Stewart, concluded that performance on the summer term report foreshadows CSEC performances, noting that the trajectory is seemingly cast in stone unless something different is done.

No reason to expect improvement

Stewart said that there is no evidentiary basis to reasonably expect any significant improvement in the overall performance at CSEC for the boys who entered Grade 11 with a grade average of 51.1 per cent when they sit CSEC exams in May 2024.

“The PTA is repeating its call for a meeting to see and discuss the plans that have been developed to do things differently for the current academic year that will address the chronic weaknesses in the boys’ academic performance.

“The PTA is prepared to continue to conceptualise and execute initiatives to assist our boys in their academic endeavours,” the document said.

The Gleaner has learnt that there has been no response to the report except for an acknowledgement of receipt.

Both the PTA and the Calabar Old Boys’ Association have pointed to a decline in academic performance as a basis for not offering the top job to now Acting Principal Sian Wilson, who has been at the institution for approximately 28 years.

Wilson served eight years as vice-principal for the lower school under Albert Corcho, who was principal for more than a decade before resigning last August to take up the top job as principal at St Elizabeth-based Bethlehem Moravian College.

The Gleaner contacted Corcho, who declined to comment on the groups’ opposition to Wilson and also the unfavourable academic performance during his tenure.

“There is absolutely no way I could comment on that. When those results were out I wasn’t part of the discussion anymore,” said Corcho.

Several attempts to reach Wilson for comment via telephone calls and text messages were unsuccessful.

In a December 15 letter to then board chair Reverend Karl Johnson, the school’s PTA president, Kenneth Lawrence, asked that in his unavoidable absence from a board meeting to be held that same day a letter of objection to Wilson be read.

He also indicated that a similar objection had been raised to the selection committee before Wilson was chosen as acting principal.

The PTA head said having been the vice-principal with responsibility for lower school for over eight years, the body was unable to point to a “single substantive contribution to the development of the school”.

Lawrence said the students, under Wilson’s leadership, showed continued decline in their academic performance through grades seven to nine, which, he said, had been previously documented by the PTA.

The group also accused Wilson of insensitivity to parents who raise grave concerns about issues relating to their son’s health, safety, and general well-being.

“This we recently documented to the board in communications via email on the 4th of December 2023. Parental engagement is at an all-time low, and she has not demonstrated any ability to improve same,” the letter, which carried the signature of Lawrence, read.

“One of the core values of the school is accountability, and we are being asked to promote Ms Wilson without holding her accountable for her tenure in leadership. What would be the basis upon which we should expect a better performance if not her past performance?

“And if we should take her at her word that she is able correct the challenges, then it begs the question, why didn’t she correct any of those under her control? We would be ignoring meritocracy to our peril,” said Lawrence’s letter.

It said that the PTA believed that the search for a principal should not end “without taking as long as it takes” to secure the truly transformational and unifying leader who is needed for the “now critically ailing institution”.

But current board chair Reverend Karl Henlin believes that there is a seeming attack on Wilson by the two stakeholder groups.

Henlin told The Gleaner that the issues raised are being and can be dealt with by the school working in partnership with all stakeholders.

He said the matter needs to not become one of public consumption to suggest that there is a squabble.

Henlin said maturity demands that all meet at the table and raise the concerns that have been and ought to be handled with mutual respect.

“There seems also to be an attempt to demonise by personalising the issues, which is regrettable and provides an unwholesome example to our students in whose service we all are,” the chairman told The Gleaner when the matters were put to him.

“Our young people all over this country need all hands on board at this time to reinforce positive values even as we aim for excellence in our academic achievements, and Calabar is a part of this larger project. It’s time to desist from this public assault and pull together,” he warned.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com