Mt Alvernia undertakes come-to-Jesus intervention for below-average students

Parents and guardians of approximately 90 students attending Mount Alvernia High have agreed to participate in a programme to improve their children’s academic performance. This follows a meeting at the Montego Bay, St James-based school on Monday.

The meeting was called to discuss the future of the girls, who all attained averages of 60 or lower in the last school term, falling below the standard of the popular Roman Catholic Church-operated institution.

The academic enrichment programme will be introduced at the start of the new school term to assist underperforming students in grades seven, eight, and nine, who were identified through continuous assessment and whose grades were found to be unacceptable.

A separate programme will be introduced for students in grades 10 and 11.

“Mount Alvernia has a standard to maintain and it is imperative that we, who have been called to be leaders, build on what we have,” said Chairman Doreth Chambers. “There are standards, but it does not take much to topple over what has been built, and we have worked hard to build Mount Alvernia to where it is now.

“For Mount Alvernia, anything below 60 at the grade level is unacceptable. We have been having discussions with the parents, but sometimes you will have to draw the line for people who will think you are joking.”

Chambers said the other option given to the parents was for their child to repeat the grade, but some parents claim that in a meeting with the administration last Tuesday, they were told to find another school for their child.

“Hearing that I have to find a school for her so close to the new school year was going to be a big problem, so some of us went to the [Ministry of Education’s] Region Four office to complain,” said one parent, who asked not to be identified.

Another parent said that her daughter’s performance fell because she became ill and had to be absent from school for several weeks.

It cannot be the student’s fault alone,” said the seemingly embarrassed mother.

Education officer Dr Shamara Brissett told The Gleaner that the ministry’s role is to ensure that all the factors affecting a child’s performance are explored and a solution found, but she refused to compare Mount Alvernia’s output with other schools.

“Every school has pockets of excellence and it is for us as educators to look at where our niche is and capitalise on that,” she said. “We are just here to ensure that no child is displaced and excellence is maintained.”

The parents agreed that students getting as low as three or 11 per cent in mathematics was unacceptable and welcomed the plan for the academic enrichment programme, which will be executed after school and on Saturdays if necessary.

It will cost a child doing one subject $15,000, but those who will need remedial work for two subjects or more will pay $40,000 for the academic year. This can be paid in instalments and will be used to offset the cost to hire additional teachers for the initiative.

Parents of the affected student will be required to attend a monthly consultation to review the progress of the child. There will also be a counselling component involving the school’s guidance counsellor.

It was also noted that academics will have to be the priority for students involved in extracurricular activities, even if representing the school.

While all students who got averages of 60 per cent and below last term will have to enrol in the programme, those averaging 50 per cent or higher will be allowed to advance to the next grade level, but those with 49 and under will be asked to repeat.

“It’s only a few that will repeat, and their performance can be for different reasons, but the parents need to talk to us and that is why we are calling for a partnership,” Principal Kayon Whyne told The Gleaner in an interview after the meeting. “The parents must attend parent-teacher consultation.”

Students will exit the enrichment programme with improved and consistent performances.

“Don’t kill her but kill her,” an administrator told the parents. “Your daughters are bright, so ... because they are bright, go home and have that come-to-Jesus conversation with them.”

But a male parent who said he has been training young men in his trade for years argued that when his apprentices fail, it meant that he also failed, challenging the Mount Alvernia administrators to take some of the responsibility for the current problem.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com