Don't abandon underperforming boys

THE EDITOR, Sir:

It has always been the lament of non-traditional high schools that the traditional high schools get all the best students. This is so because the traditional high schools get the students with 80 per cent and above, and the non-traditional high schools get everyone else.

Students are often told to shine wherever they are placed, so for those that are placed at the traditional high schools, they are at a better advantage to do well, even exceptionally, as they are placed in schools with better facilities, stronger PTA membership, and more active past students' associations.

The traditional high schools benefit from students who are already at a high education level, and all the teachers, the school, and the parents need to do is to keep this standard high. Although the students did well in their primary exit exams, these students come from various socio-economic environs and are faced with different challenges.

Having had three children going through the teenage years (both sexes), as a parent, I know that each child requires individual attention.

No support from me

I cannot support Calabar's decision to not promote to fifth form boys who are performing under 60 per cent. Where will these boys go? To a non-traditional high school that already has the 70 per cent, 60 per cent, 50 per cent working with from grade 7? How are these schools effectively to turn these boys around now, with such little time before they do CSEC?

Why weren't these boys identified from grade 9 and a special class (or classes) with special teachers formed to work along with them to get them to the required standard of the school?

It would seem to me that Calabar (and any other school or anyone else of like mind) is giving up on our young people.

E. CHAMBERS