Education in Jamaica

[Wahalla]

I found this website after reading the article in the gleaner...I would like to see the statistic with 5 subjects with English and Maths... not as is english or maths..as well as a table with 5 subject.... any thing below 80% is unacceptable.. That is the level of the acedemy that my children will go to in Scotland...

looking at the table Montego Bay High has done well consistently... it has beaten Cornwall...but even the top ten hides a fact..these schools get the cream of the litter, they should do better... and we should also see how spend perstudent reflects in the statistic...

y I am so concerned is that education is the one method that has consistently lifted individuals out of poverty... it has a poltical economic term to describe it... Predistribution...But the head line is the truth...
72% Leaving School Underachieving

Aug 12, 2013

72% of secondary school leavers are leaving school underachieving and this is a worrying statistic.
A number of traditional high schools are among the schools who are failing to help pupils achieve.
See our two tables below:
TOP 20 SCHOOLS ISLANDWIDE
This shows the 20 best performing schools across the entire country.

Ranking	Name of school	Percentage (%) of grade 11 cohort attaining Five (5) subjects with English and/or Mathematics.
1	Campion College	97.6%
2	Wolmers Girls’ School	96.8%
3	St. Hilda’s High School	96.2%
4	Glenmuir High School	95.8%
5	St. Andrew High School for Girls	93.3%
6	Ardenne High School	93.2%
7	Immaculate Conception High School	93.1%
8	Westwood High School	92.6%
9	Wolmers Boys’ School	92.6%
10	Knox College	88.0%
11	Mount Alvernia High School	87.8%
12	Montego Bay High	87.6%
13	Bishop Gibson	85.9%
14	DeCarteret College	82.3%
15	Convent of Mercy Alpha Girl School	81.9%
16	Munro College	80.1%
17	Merl Grove High School	79.1%
18	St. Hugh’s High School	78.7 %
19	The Queens High School	75.5%
20	Mannings High School	73.5%

BOTTOM 20 SCHOOLS ISLANDWIDE
This shows the 20 poorest performing schools across the entire country.

Ranking	Name of school	Percentage (%) of grade 11 cohort attaining Five (5) subjects with English and/or Mathematics.
1	Edith Dalton James High	3.4%
2	Denham Town High	3.2%
3	Spanish Town High	3.1%
4	Fair Prospect High	3.0%
5	Bog Walk High	2.8%
6	Hopewell High	2.6%
7	Cedric Titus High	2.4%
8	Islington High	2.3%
9	Penwood High	2.3%
10	Grange Hill High	2.1%
11	Charlie Smith High	2.0%
12	Cumberland High	2.0%
13	Newell High	2.0%
14	Robert Lightbourne High	1.7%
15	Sydney Paygon Agricultural High	1.5%
16	Yallahs High	1.2%
17	Innswood High	1.1%
18	Glengoffe High	1%
19	Paul Bogle High	0.9%
20	Donald Quarrie High	0.4%

[Wahalla]

Prove Us Wrong, Think Tank To High-School Rankings Skeptics


Published: Wednesday August 14, 2013 | 6:06 pmwith audio | 5 Comments
Jovan Johnson, Gleaner Writer


The education think tank that has released a controversial ranking of Jamaican high schools is challenging aggrieved school administrators to bring evidence to disprove its findings.


Critics of educatejamaica.org’s best secondary schools’ guide, including Jamaica College principal, Ruel Reid have raised questions about the methodology used to arrive at the rankings.


Education Minister Ronald Thwaites, has said the rankings do not help to improve perceptions of schools as the comparison is made between schools that receive high quality Grade Six Achievement Test grades and schools that receive low passes.


However, chairman of the think tank, Ainsworth Darby, says parents have a right to know how secondary schools are performing, academically, in order to give their children the best chance of succeeding.


Darby says the report is credible, as the data were obtained from the Education Ministry through the Access to Information Act and incorporates subject passes at the fourth form level.
He says there are considerations to assess other performance measures but insists that educating children and enabling them to leave with specific subject requirements is the main purpose of high schools.


Educatejamaica.org bases its school-ranking on the percentage of students from each school who attained passes in five or more subjects in the 2012 Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate exams including mathematics or English language.


The organisation says a team of four, including a statistician, carried out the analysis.


One-hundred-and-sixty-two public schools were ranked, with Campion College being rated the best and Donald Quarrie High ranked the lowest.

[Tuff Gong]

Hopefully we can get it together. But with the entrenched culture of the JTA and MOE I doubt it.

[blugiant]

y I am so concerned is that education is the one method that has consistently lifted individuals out of poverty... it has a poltical economic term to describe it... Predistribution..

iss diss troo ar is diss yuh beelief?

[Wahalla]

delete

[blugiant]

iff miseducatesham inn jamaica was da cure awl, ow cum da povertee rate neva drapped significantlee widd more peeps gittinn miseducated

[Wahalla]

iff miseducatesham inn jamaica was da cure awl, ow cum da povertee rate neva drapped significantlee widd more peeps gittinn miseducated

And here I always thought u grew up in the poor areas of Killsome, the Ghetto and through education lifted ur self out of poverty to become an educator....a prime example of education

education in Jamaica is not effective... but it has effectively lifted a number of individuals out of poverty... more in fact than sport music or drugs.... Prominent case ... was Sexi Rexi....

My point is that 5 CXC including english and maths is a conventional measure of a secondary education in Jamaica...these individuals who attain thsi level are seeen as trainable to the next stage of education. (CAPE HEART tertiary insitutions, ect). given that there are a number of schools on that list that have less than 1 percent .. 72 % dont have that m basic level of comprehension.....

[twiney]

It is sad when you rank and compare schools that were set up as traditional high schools (that if you cant score close to 100% on GSAT there is no room for you) with schools that their names where changed to high school and are a place for those who dont make the cut to technically be on the street.

There has got to be a better way

[Wahalla]

Every one of these points are valid... but it does not deflect from the simple fact that imho only 16 secondary schools in Jamaica I would send my children to... I would not want my children to attend a school with a pass rate for 5 subjects is less than 80 %... On the other hand I would not wamt tp send my children with a rate greater than 90 as it would suggest that there is not a mixed ability ...


LETTER OF THE DAY - Broad-Brushing Schools For Ranking

Published: Saturday | August 17, 20138 Comments




THE EDITOR, Sir:
A NUMBER of persons have been dissatisfied with the recent ranking of secondary/high schools based on the performance of students in the CSEC/CXC examinations. Many do not believe that this method was a fair one in making these determinations. The fact is that there is no single method by which one can fairly rank our secondary schools.
I can understand the basis that was used, that of CSEC results; however one needs to consider a number of things before any ranking can be done.
1. Schools have different resources available to their students, and it is a fact that the schools that are considered to be 'prominent high schools' have more resources available to their students.
2. Prominent high schools receive students with the highest grades at the GSAT level, that is, students with a stronger foundation. This means that the approach taken to prepare them for CSEC is different and in some instances less tedious than those 'non-prominent' schools who receive students with lower GSAT grades and hence a weaker foundation.
3. The culture differs from one school to the other; some schools have to deal with the issue of violence, which severely affects the mindsets of students.
4. Some of our schools are still on a shift system, which means less teacher/student contact time and less time in an environment that is conducive to learning.
The recent ranking of schools, though seen as unfair, can be used as a means of determining which schools are in need of urgent attention and address their academic shortcomings. By no means should it be used to place blame on any group or individual, but as a step in rectifying the unsatisfactory performance of many of our students at the high-schoollevel.
FAYONA LEWIS

[Wahalla]

13% Of CSEC Students Pass Math Since 2009 - Report

Published: Monday | August 19, 20130 Comments




Statistics from the Ministry of Education have revealed the low number of students actually sitting the two core subjects, mathematics and English, after completing five years in public secondary schools.
Over the last five years, an estimated 350,000 Jamaican candidates have been registered for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate(CSEC) exams.
However, only 111,436 of these students were entered for CSEC math, while 128,704 sat the English exam between 2009 and 2013 from public secondary schools.
The data also showed that only 40 per cent of this number entering mathematics attained grades one to three, with the highest number of passes, 9,661, being recorded this year.
Students who sat the English exams are faring better. Sixty two per cent of those sitting the exams over the last five years have earned a passing grade. In 2010, the highest number of students passed English - 17,214.
However, on close examination, the data exposed an alarming picture of how badly Jamaican students are performing in the foundation subjects. Only 13 per cent of the estimated 350,000 registered to sit the exams over the last five years have a passing grade in mathematics compared to a relatively better figure of 23 per cent in English.
This means that only 44,325 pupils have acquired a passing grade in mathematics and 79,890 have passed English from the public school system in the last five years.

[RichD]

this is one reason striking reason why i do not support addition of Patwa as a language to the school curriculum.

[Wahalla]

think of all the books that would have to translated to "patwa".. parliament business would be done in patwa....but back to the acedemic books.. Jamaica books would be different to Bajan, guyanese or trini books....imagine trying to understans history in Bluespeak....

[Wahalla]

This is on point imho.. I think Ronnie doesnt want the publixity as parents would raise cain if they are aware what their children face in the failing schools...

EDITORIAL - Keep On Ranking Schools

Published: Monday | August 19, 20133 Comments





Ronald Thwaites, the education minister, has largely been on the right track in recent months.
He has been demanding better returns on taxpayers' investment in education, including greater effort from teachers. He has the proof of his good deeds: the scars of denunciation by the teachers' union.
Yet, Mr Thwaites may be in danger of losing the plot and ceding ground to those who may not be up to the hard, dedicated effort that will be required to rescue Jamaica's education system from its dismal performance.
Last week, the minister complained about the publication of a ranking of the country's secondary schools by a group calledEducatejamaica.org.
The ranking is based on the performance of schools in the 2012 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), rated by the number of their students, from their entire cohort, who, at a single sitting, passed five subjects - including math and English - in the CSEC exams. The five passes in these exams are normally the minimum matriculation requirement for higher education, or ensuring a decent, entry-level job.
Educatejamaica.org's analysis shows that more than 70 per cent of the students, after five years of high school, do not reach this minimum level. Indeed, there are many schools, among the 162 reviewed, where significantly less than one per cent of the students meet this minimum standard.
The data, of course, are no revelation. Similar analyses have been published in the past, and the education ministry itself, sometimes in its policy documents, points to Jamaica's dismal education outcomes.
But the minister would prefer not to have a ranking of schools because, he argues, it embarrasses the poor performers and demotivates them. He also argues about the methodology of the review, but offers little of substance to sustain an objection.
Mr Thwaites, it seems, would prefer to keep the identity of the poor performers secret and engage, at least in public, in a kind of cuddly cajoling. The attitude is reminiscent of his complaint when his predecessor declared a number of high schools as failing.
This newspaper agrees that the identification of poorly performing schools cannot be an end in itself. That has to be accompanied by a programme to fix education.
Disservice to stakeholders
But keeping the identities of these failing schools secret is a disservice to their stakeholders - students, parents and teachers, and to perpetuate a fraud on taxpayers who fund them. They have a right to know what they get for the money they spend and who, specifically, should be held accountable.
For instance, in the absence of such reports, when we talk in generalities about poor education outcomes, specific principals and school boards and the teachers they supervise are able to float below the radar.
Eight years ago, Dr Dennis Minott, of the educational organisation A-Quest, led a far more in-depth research into the performance of Jamaican students in the CSEC and advanced CAPE exams over the period 2001-2004 from which high schools were ranked.Educatejamaica.org's analysis largely confirmed those findings.
The publication of Minott's data, which identified principals, school boards and students councils, engaged people and forced action against poor head teachers. But weak follow-up since then caused people to fall back into bad habits. Jamaica cannot afford such complacency.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: [email protected] or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.

[blugiant]

And here I always thought u grew up in the poor areas of Killsome, the Ghetto and through education lifted ur self out of poverty to become an educator....a prime example of education

education in Jamaica is not effective... but it has effectively lifted a number of individuals out of poverty... more in fact than sport music or drugs.... Prominent case ... was Sexi Rexi....

My point is that 5 CXC including english and maths is a conventional measure of a secondary education in Jamaica...these individuals who attain thsi level are seeen as trainable to the next stage of education. (CAPE HEART tertiary insitutions, ect). given that there are a number of schools on that list that have less than 1 percent .. 72 % dont have that m basic level of comprehension.....

wen mii tri fe play da povertee card, mii relatives remind mii dat mii familee owned wan store ann land. realitee iss dat even inn ghettoo livinn mii wass natt raised in povertee ann itt was cah mii peeps add likkle sintinn y mii was blessed widd appartunitee natt avialable to moas jamaicans.

argument mii raisinn iss dat cxc ar used fe limit appartunitee ann upward mobilitee

[Wahalla]

my point is that I know of guys who pulled them selves up by boot straps based on education....who made a transgenerational leap out of poverty. I am one, I dont claim poverty , I claim a twenty year cash flow problem! the simple thing is that they "passed" 5 or more cxc including maths and english...this means that they were placed in high schools at age 12......and there is something I know... in fact I reconnected to another of them on skype last week and we had a long conversation on this issue.. Not just the leap forward but also the price we paid emotionaly to do it as we survived institutions that the majority came from a middle class environment...

I know no one leap out of poverty who has done this based on agriculture, sport or music... I know people who did it based on Marijuana though and others by seasonal work in Kanada...alot more by migration, but migration does not happen from the really poor.... But of the local options education attainment to this standard IMHO does seem to

Dont get me wrong this may be ancedotal.. but looking at the basis of the leap is that u get 5 cxc including maths and english...Jamaica does not educated enough people to this standard... So yes the education system does perpetuate this poverty cycle..but by failing to train Jamaicans to this standard..

72 % of Jamaica does not meet this standard... if we moved this to 50 % continuously would there be a lift out of poverty by it self ???

I think there is a pHD to be researched here on this issue!