Students slow to sign up for transitional education

Two weeks before the start of the new school year, only half the students who were placed in the Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (ASTEP) have shown up for registration at the various centres to which they have been assigned.

Audrey Sewell, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, said the registration is progressing more slowly than desired with approximately 3,000 of the 6,000 students registered so far.

Sewell was speaking recently during a press conference at the Ministry of Education's Heroes Circle headquarters in Kingston.

According to Sewell, reports reaching the ministry are that some parents have attempted to get their children registered at other high schools.

"We want to remind parents, and our schools, that because the children were not certified literate they should not take them," Sewell warned.

Education Minister Andrew Holness, in appealing to the parents to take the students to the assigned schools, argued that the ministry has developed a programme that suits the students' learning needs.

Work with the ministry

According to Holness, if parents work with the ministry, the students would improve and be ready to launch out into secondary education shortly.

"We are appealing to those parents to send out your children so that when we return to school, the entire school population of the nation is in school and that no child will be left behind," he said.

The ASTEP is a two-year transitional programme for students who have not attained mastery of the Grade Four Literacy Test. The programme will provide a modified secondary education with the focus being on literacy so that students can make the transition to the secondary level.