Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. And as students get ready for the new school year, that is the hope for Tashika Yateman-Gardener. The educator and entrepreneur, who is looking forward to embarking upon this term with open books and hearts, is still basking in the successful pass rate of her scholars.
Located in Trelawny, her institution, Natken Educational Services, celebrates three years in the business. Named in honour of her two daughters Natahlia and Kenya, the school has seen 100 per cent passes in social studies, information technology, and principles of business this year alone. Last year, it was the case for geography and the year before that, English language.
“What I love is that each year, the actual scores keep getting better. That means I am doing my part in helping our students to understand the subjects. Every child can learn if you take the time to teach them,” she told GoodHeart.
Growing up, Yateman-Gardener’s studies were set on cruise control. While enrolled at Mount Alvernia High School, she realised that she absorbed knowledge better if it was presented in an exciting and interactive manner.
“There are teachers who expect children to grasp knowledge in a particular way. So they come to class surprised when some students aren’t getting the material. It doesn’t work that way. They are all individuals. Once you treat the students as people, you will develop a connection and they will tell you when they are not getting something. The earlier we figure this out, the less children we will have hating to go to ‘that place’ they call school,” she said.
Despite being cognisant of her strengths, Yateman-Gardener planted no seed in the education system. She left high school, went to the Montego Bay Community College and did Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exaination (CAPE) subjects and later attended The University of the West Indies in 2003, where she studied geography.
“Geography is such a wonderful subject. It is literally in front of you every day. But it’s just given to others out of a book, and it is everything else, except that,” she shared.
Along her tertiary journey, Yateman-Gardener discovered that she was pregnant. With that new life development, she took a leave of absence from university and had a beautiful daughter. “My child is now 18,” she proudly revealed.
It wasn’t until she took on the new maternal role that she considered education as a career option. “This is my own person that I have to raise to be an upstanding individual. That’s really when the education mentality came in. Nobody could tell me that I would fit in a classroom. Parenthood changed me,” she reminisced.
Returning after her leave of absence, the girl mom completed her bachelor’s degree and picked a regular nine-to-five job. But then something remarkable happened. She began engaging in educational experiments with her daughter and her methods started paying off.
“At nine and 10 years old, Natahlia was a spelling bee champion for the parish. She won the Jamaica Library Service’s reading competition in 2016 for the country as well. So other parents in the community began asking me for assistance,” Yateman-Gardener explained.
With a desire for free weekends and holidays in order to teach her daughters in the way that worked for them, she took a chance and applied for a teaching job at Holland High School. The switch in career was her husband’s idea and she is grateful for his encouragement and support.
Becoming the change she wanted to see in the education system blew her mind. Teaching grade 10 in a school with boys was different and she provided as much support as she possibly could, building a rapport with them and helping them in and out of the classroom. “Those boys are now my big sons and they consider my daughters their little sisters. It was a great experience.”
After a year, she went to her alma mater for four months in January of 2016. It was extended until June, then she was asked to join the staff by the principal at the time, Stacey Reynolds.
“Mrs Reynolds was exceptional. She took a chance on me. I saw her vision; she was bringing the change. She had her share of challenges, but I could see where she was going. She saw that my mindset was different and she appreciated that and made good use of it.”
Yateman-Gardener attained her post graduate diploma in education and training at the Vocational Training Development Institute, graduating with honours, and taught geography and social studies while moving up the ranks from the sixth form coordinator to the dean of discipline before settling in as the grade 11 coordinator.
“Natahlia attended the same school where I worked. She did social studies at the CSEC level in grade eight and got a grade one, straight A profile. By grade 10, she did English literature and she got a one, straight A profile with merit. I was so proud.” The lesson she learnt – parents put too many limits on children. If the pressure and limits are lifted, they would be surprised at the results.
The emergence of COVID-19 brought along with it the demand for online classes. Realising that her students were doing well, even in those tough times, Yateman-Gardener started a YouTube channel dedicated to helping students from all walks of life, including Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Turks and Caicos.
That growth inspired Yateman-Gardener to step out on faith, leaving her teaching job behind to start her own school.
Fully staffed with 23 teachers, the school covers mathematics, English language and literature, social studies, geography, principles of accounts, principles of business (POB), and information technology at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level, along with students at the Primary Exit Profile examination level. Classes are available in groups or one-on-one sessions in person or online. There are reading classes for young children and adult classes as well.
Students, of course, have the option of taking the subjects before reaching fifth form. Eighth-grader Giselle Ann Swaby is already a top achiever at Natken, receiving a grade one in both POB and social studies.
Catering to the needs and teaching styles of the students, the centre is children-driven. “It was important for the students to feel how much we care about helping them to achieve academic success. When they know the teachers want them to do well, they try their very best to do so. We have the children’s best interest at heart.”
A passionate Yateman-Gardener is happy to treat the teachers in the same way she would want to be treated as a teacher, stripping away limits of being confined to the island in order to educate.
She hopes to make Natken a household name, known for solving different problems in the education system.
On a personal note, she has graduated from Western Carolina University with a master’s in educational leadership and supervision (highest honour) and has written three books. Her second daughter Kenya is following in her sister’s footsteps, becoming the reading competition’s parish champion at age six. She is now nine years old.
Her advice to parents with struggling students is to “be vested in your children’s education, show them how to make you proud”. For the teachers, “do unto people’s children as you would want other teachers to do unto your own children. With that mindset, you will do things out of care and the students will respond to that in a positive way”.