‘A new beginning’

Leighton Christie, principal of Papine High School in St Andrew, is anticipating improved academic performances from the institution’s students when it is removed from the shift system in September.

The school, which was built in 1959, was placed on a two-shift system when that arrangement was introduced in the 1970s to increase the number of school spaces and reduce class sizes.

However, Christie, elated that the school he has headed for the last 13 years is the latest to be removed from this system, pointed to many drawbacks of this approach that students have to endure.

“I know our students have always been at a disadvantage - reduced time, not enough time to complete curriculum, not enough time for the children to be engaged in extracurricular activities,” he said. “We will have more time with the students. The teachers will be able to work better with the students from grade seven to grade 13.”

Under a shift system, the first group of students attends school from early morning until mid-day, and the second group usually attends from mid-day to late afternoon. Each group uses the same buildings, equipment, and other facilities.

At Papine High, morning and afternoon shifts are alternated yearly between students in grades seven to nine and 10 to 13.

However, noting that the school serves several rural communities in St Andrew and St Thomas, the principal said the shift system was particularly burdensome for students living in those areas.

“What you find, on the shift system, the students are travelling all the way up into the hills. They generally suffer a lot when school is dismissed at 5:30 in the afternoon. They generally have challenges reaching home. They are reaching home 10, 11 o’clock in the nights, [and] they have to get up out of their beds [at] three, four o’clock in the morning to get to school. And sometimes if their transportation miss them, they really suffer on the road,” he said.

UNSUPERVISED TIME

There is also the threat of students participating in delinquent behaviours as the shift system causes them to be unsupervised for extended periods, Christie argued.

“Parents are reaching home at five, six o’clock in the evening, and their children are going to be leaving school at 12:30. So that span of time, between 12:20 and 6:00, many things can happen,” he said.

“But when we now have a straight day of school with more time and longer school days, by the time the children are finished school, they are just in time to be reaching home now with parents who are coming from work who can give supervision.”

Both parents and students were calling for a change, Christie shared. Four years ago, he introduced extended days where the shifts would overlap for two to three hours. Although he acknowledged that this caused a strain on the school’s resources, he said it also prepared students and staff for what to expect come September.

Currently, the National Education Trust is expanding the school’s infrastructure to accommodate all students on the compound at the same time. In addition to an auditorium being retrofitted to house temporary classrooms, bathrooms are also being renovated.

Christie shared that the process has started for the construction of a three-storey building that will house 14 classrooms, lab space, offices, and bathroom facilities.

While he could not provide a timeline for the completion of this building, he said the school has almost finalised its waste-water project, a critical preparation step for its construction.

Stating that a shift system makes it “feel as if you are operating two schools”, as different teachers operate on different shifts, the principal said he was also looking forward to the more than 1,200-student population benefiting from the expertise of all 70 educators on staff.

“We will have more hands on deck during a particular period of the day, the school day, and it will benefit the children more,” he said.

But even more significant, he said, is the expected cultural change the move will cause.

“We are preparing, and we are putting the necessary things in place. This is going to be a new beginning for us, and we will be doing everything. The students have been clamouring for it. They want it. They want to operate like just any other institution on a full day, so we will capitalise on that and make sure we continue to build a culture of success in different areas,” he said.

In June last year, Education Minister Fayval Williams outlined the Government’s plan to transition all 38 schools that operate on a shift system to full-day school.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com