Others can learn from Hillel teaching model

THE EDITOR, Sir:

We are very grateful for the assessment of our school expressed by Mr Din Duggan in The Gleaner of January 19, 2011.

However, some salient points need to be added.

First, most of Hillel Academy teachers are Jamaica- or Caribbean-born and trained in the same system that produced excellent educators, such as Ms Carol Narcisse and Mr Ruel Reid. There is no shortage of talented educators here in Jamaica. The excellent and innovative achievements Hillel teachers have produced using international curricula grow from the same soil as other, less magnificent results in other schools.

Second, Hillel students are not enrolled because they are all geniuses. Our kids are normal, lively youngsters, and 85 per cent of them are from the Caribbean.

Why, then, the discrepancy of educational outcomes? Leaving aside our choice of a more targeted curriculum, the single factor that emerges was mentioned by Mr Duggan, but strangely absent from recent comments by Ms Nadine Molloy of the Jamaica Teachers' Association - class size.

Good teachers

It has been my privilege to know many Jamaican educators over the last three years, and I know them to be highly motivated, very professional and committed to lifelong learning. But no one can teach teenagers effectively when, class after class, they must divide their attention among 40 students. The reported difficulties in the Jamaican public-school system has one cause: for many years, the Ministry of Education has allowed demands on teachers to expand outside the realm of the possible, creating the culture of privately paid 'extras' and dooming the poorest families to see their bright sons and daughters denied a bright future.

Hillel Academy and Haile Selassie High share an honorary board member. We also share high aspirations for our students. Hillel Academy intends to keep innovating to be a strong example of best practice for parents and teachers. As a private school, we depend solely on our own resources. Ms Narcisse must count on the Ministry of Education, and there, in my humble opinion, lies the rub.

I am, etc.,

PEGGY BLEYBERG

Director

Hillel Academy