Monthly Archives: September 2015

Two high schools, which are among five additional institutions selected to participate in year two of the JN Foundation’s iLead programme, have set high expectations for what they anticipate to gain from their involvement in the education leadership initiative, being implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

The high schools, St Thomas Technical in St Thomas and Happy Grove in Portland, anticipate that high quality training provided by the programme will help to build the capacity of the senior teachers and heads of departments.

“We are looking forward to the training,” says Monique Grant Facey, principal of Happy Grove High. “It will mean more work, but we welcome it,” the veteran school leader, who joined the institution as principal less than a year ago, after spending 18 years at Titchfield High, added.

A frank-talking educator, Grant Facey acknowledges that the school has many challenges; however, she is confident they can be addressed with the right support.

“There is room to improve teaching and learning,” she said noting that while teachers are qualified and know the content, their approach can be refined by skills to help them to apply differentiated strategies that cater to students’ various learning styles.

“Our students are performing below the national average in many areas; and, especially in the core subjects, maths and English,” she said, noting that a contributing factor to the problem is the fact that the approaches being used by teachers don’t always meet students’ needs.

“Our senior management, therefore, welcomes the approach of the iLead programme and look forward to moving the school ahead,” she affirmed.

The iLead programme tackles performance in rural schools by working with the leadership to improve standards and systems. It focuses on raising expectations by setting high standards for students and teachers; assisting schools to strengthen academic and administrative management with checks and balances; and, emphasising the use of data to improve accountability. At the same time, emphasis is also placed on improving teaching and learning in maths and English.

The three-year programme, launched in 2014, currently works with ten schools in the parishes of Portland, St Mary and St Thomas, which are considered by the Ministry of Education as in need of immediate support. It began initially with five schools: Robert Lightbourne High in St Thomas; Buff Bay Primary in Portland and Islington High, Brimmer Vale High and Port Maria Primary in St Mary.

And, at the end of the school year Martin Primary, Retreat Primary and Junior High in St Mary; Windsor Castle Primary and Happy Grove in Portland; and, St Thomas Technical, were added.

“The idea of operating an institution driven by data is what we hope to improve on,” said Betty Bryan Webber, principal of St Thomas Technical.

Bryan Webber, who joined the institution in September, indicates that while the school made an impact on some leadership challenges, there are issues which continue to stymie students’ performance. A main challenge is punctuality, given the long distances some students have to travel; in addition, to poor road conditions and unreliable transportation.

“We have students coming from as far away as Penlyne Castle, in the Blue Mountains close to the border of St Andrew. Therefore, that’s a challenge,” she said.

Although the school has made gains, especially in English Language since 2013, its students are performing at just about the national average in maths and English. Of the 240 students in the grade 11 cohort last year, only 125 sat mathematics and 65, or about 52 per cent, passed. One hundred and ninety-five sat English and 119 or 61 per cent passed.

“We are not comfortable with this, as our aim is to have the entire grade 11 cohort write the examination in Math and English,” Bryan Webber said.

Dr Renee Rattray, director of Education Programmes at JN Foundation noted that numeracy and literacy are the core academic focus of the programme, and are deliverables which are supported by the ministry through the deployment of full-time coaches to the schools.

“The implementation involves intensive coaching and support for the principals, middle managers and education officers to improve the quality of teaching and learning, while offering organisational leadership support for school boards,” Dr Rattray disclosed.

She emphasised that the programme offers mainly on-the- job support, which is the most effective approach to professional development.

“Under-performing schools need game-changing leaders who are equipped with the skills, strategies and energy to break the cycle of under-performance and dramatically improve results,” she said. “And, the iLead programme is structured to provide those critical skills.”

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/regional/iLead-programme-continues-to-deliver-in-St-Thomas–Portland-_19227780

IN A celebratory event held at its corporate offices, the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Foundation yesterday awarded 31 scholarships to students who received excellent passes in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

Saffrey Brown, general manager of the JNBS Foundation, said that this year, the foundation took over the administration of the JN scholarship programme, which was previously managed by the corporate communications team at the JNBS.

The scholarships were awarded in three categories – GSAT Parish Scholarships, JN School Savers Scholarship, and the JN Employees’ Children Scholarships.

The 31 scholarships bring the total number of awards being given by the building society to 135.

Guest speaker at the awards ceremony, Mariame McIntosh Robinson, founder of Targeting Educational Achievement in Caribbean High Schools (Teach) Caribbean, congratulated JN for continuing to provide access to education for many Jamaican children.

Sharing her personal experiences, McIntosh Robinson explained that she started Teach Caribbean because of a dream to see every Jamaican child having equal access to quality education. Teach Caribbean is an educational non-governmental organisation which engages Rhodes scholars from all over the world to run summer boot camps in English and mathematics for students across Jamaica.

“The ride has just begun and it will only get better … as long as you continue to apply yourself and prioritise your education, you are off to a wonderful start …,” McIntosh Robinson told the scholarship recipients.

She implored the awardees to make the most of their high-school experience and called for more persons and entities to contribute to education.

“While I believe education is a public good, it is imperative for the private sector and us as citizens to do our part in ensuring that we eliminate the under-education of our Jamaican children … and I want to pause and give thanks for the work that JN has been doing in this space. I know this requires both vision and commitment from senior management and then an excellent team to top it off,” she said.

Tajh Simpson, a first-form student who was awarded a place a Munro College, was overjoyed on learning he was awarded a JN scholarship.

“Getting a scholarship means a lot to me because I really worked hard for it and I know that it will encourage me to maintain my grades,” he said.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20150914/jamaica-national-foundation-awards-31-scholarships

General Manager of the JN Foundation, Saffrey Brown offers words of encouragement to scholarship recipient Aulanni Kidd during yesterday’s staging of the JN Foundation 2015 Scholarship Awards at JNBS, Half-Way-Tree. Kidd, who attends Campion College in St Andrew, was one of 31 scholarship winners from all 14 parishes. The scholarship lasts for five years and recipients must maintain an annual school average of 70 per cent

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/JN-SCHOLAR_19228667

As Jamaicans, our team spirit is second to none. We know how to rally when the time comes. If you have had the pleasure of being in the National Stadium to watch a qualifying match with the Reggae Boyz, you know what I am talking about. It is electrifying. We get on bad in the stands. We even tell the coach how to organise the players. Everybody becomes experts.

I want to challenge us as Team Jamaica to harness that energy and passion to treat with education, as we do other areas that are important to us. Many of us need to get out of the stands and participate!

Education evens the score and levels the playing field. It separates productive nations from those that are unproductive. And, every child is entitled to a good education. It is his or her basic right – and it is our duty to get it right!

I am often accused of being impatient; and that I don’t understand that things take time to change. But, the more I visit schools in Jamaica, the more impatient I become, because I am convinced that students don’t have time! All they have is now.

They can’t wait for more resources to be provided or for Parliament to review, amend or pass the next act, policy or regulation; they can’t wait for the next visit by the education officer or for teachers to get higher wages. They can’t wait for a poorly performing principal or teacher to retire in two years. They don’t have time!

Our annual statistics show us we are nowhere near where we ought to be as a country in the development of our students, who are struggling to simply attain passes in maths and English. Fewer than half, or only 49 per cent, of our students passed maths in the 2014 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations, and more than 40 per cent failed English. Many more did not even have the chance to sit examinations in these basic subjects, but graduated from high school unprepared to transition into the world of work.

In some schools, five out of a cohort of 200 pass maths after five years in high school! And too often the heads of the Maths Department in some schools have never passed the subject themselves. It is as if we are at half-time in a

football game and we now have to make some critical and tactical decisions if we want to get some goals in the back of that net. Only goals win games!

Therefore, we need to redefine and build a clear rationale to educate the people we serve. We need to ask ourselves, “Who are we serving and what are we preparing them for? Sadly, when I go into classrooms, I, too, often see students seated in neat rows being fed the same diet in class after class.

We need an injection of disruptive innovation in our system; and, this requires a Team Jamaica effort, because education is a team sport. There are some great things happening in schools and classrooms across this country, but in too many places, there is a one-size-fits-all approach. How then do we expect to achieve creativity and innovation?

Our education sector faces resource challenges, as there is simply not enough, especially in our rural schools, but I have seen leaders who inspire creativity, manage strategically and, as we say in Jamaica, ‘tun dem han mek fashion’, to support success in the most underserved schools.

Research the world over tells us that the two biggest contributors to the success of schools are the quality of leadership and the quality of teaching and learning.

According to the National Education Inspectorate, after inspecting 85 per cent of schools, leadership is satisfactory in only about 46 per cent of our schools, which really means leadership is merely meeting the minimum standards; while in 40 per cent of our schools, leadership is unsatisfactory, and THREE per cent are in need of critical support.

This is why my organisation, Jamaica National, has partnered with the Ministry of Education to support their efforts to improve the leadership in schools. We did this under the five-year Centres of Excellence Programme, which was created and funded jointly by JNBS and VMBS in six rural high schools across Jamaica, and we continue to do so under the iLead programme, being implemented by the JN Foundation and the Ministry of Education, in schools in the parishes of Portland, St Thomas and St Mary.

The JN Foundation supports the leadership, school boards, education officers, principals, middle leaders and student leaders in these schools to shore up their systems of management and accountability; clearly define their visions and goals; set targets, and, most important, we provide coaching, mentorship and collaboration at all levels.

This is a mere drop in the bucket, but already there are ripples. So far, we have touched the lives of approximately 10,000 students, 700 teachers, and 100 leaders. A school like Green Pond High School, which is in a very volatile community here in Montego Bay, is not the same place today, having gone through our programme. School leaders there have opted to do things differently and are challenging their students and themselves to achieve better results … and THEY HAVE!

We have to remove the labels and eliminate that dangerous single story that says schools which are called ‘non-traditional’ cannot succeed. ALL SCHOOLS MUST BE GOOD SCHOOLS and be staffed with the school leaders who can manage various learning capacities and student challenges, and who can create the environment where value can be added despite the level at which the school receives the student. Now, more than ever in our history, we need a soundly educated workforce to take us in the direction we wish to go as a country.

Our classrooms are like football fields in many ways. There is plenty of talent waiting to be unearthed, and our school leaders are the captains, coaches and technical directors who must tap into students’ potential. Schools must become the centres of innovation in our country if we want an innovative workforce.

We need school leaders who:

*Challenge the status quo.

*Use data to inform what they do; and not simply rely on ‘feelings’.

*Collaborate and work closely with all stakeholders and form meaningful partnerships.

*Take responsibility for every student’s performance.

*Create a culture of success by setting high expectations for all students.

*Develop the environment in which children learn by discovery, and appreciate that mistakes are part of the process of knowledge building.

It’s urgent that we no longer see ourselves as spectators. We have a part to play in creating futures with positive outcomes that will, in the final analysis, benefit all of us.

– Dr Renee Rattray is director, education programmes, JN Foundation. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/focus/20150621/education-team-sport

THERE is a buzz at Papine High School in St Andrew: the school is increasing the number of subjects offered at Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), and it is participating in a range of arts, music and sporting events — all with a view to making the institution a school of choice in the Corporate Area.

Earlier this month, a cohort of 14 students sat CSEC physics, a first for the school. The accomplishment was the culmination of an informal three-year mentorship programme spearheaded by two staff members of the Physics Department at the University of Technology, Jamaica.

One of them, George Ferriera, explained that he was inspired to take on the project when he learned that the school did not offer physics.

“It has been challenging at times for me and my colleague, Hector Simpson,” he said. “However, the students were very interested, and the principal most supportive; therefore, we tried to stick with it.”

Formerly a secondary school, Papine High has been steadily forging its way into uncharted waters and has been including traditional subjects in the school’s curriculum.

“We have always performed well in vocational subjects, and now we are also doing better in other subjects, such as biology and mathematics,” explained Principal Leighton Christie.

The school recorded a 39 per cent increase in its CSEC maths results in 2014.

Educators and students also hope to celebrate another first next month, when the school’s drama club will compete against 14 other high schools across the country in the inaugural JN Shakespeare Schools’ Championship.

The cast of 15 students has been faithfully rehearsing excerpts from Shakespeare’s acclaimed play Hamlet, from which they will present a 30-minute drama adapted to the Jamaican context.

Sponsor Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) will provide funds for an all-expense paid two-week visit to the United Kingdom for the winning school to participate in the Shakespeare Festival, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The competition, the brainchild of Jamaican UK resident Dr Tony Sewell, is supported by a team of drama mentors, led by Dr Brian Heap of the Phillip Sherlock Centre, at The University of the West Indies.

Dr Sewell noted: “Most of our students read plays, but never have the opportunity to see them performed; and, in the case of Shakespeare, his plays were meant to be performed to fully appreciate the nuances of the dramatic action.”

“To be the first winner of the competition would be great,” said Melissa Gibson, head of the drama club, who is preparing the Papine High School students for the competition.

“My students are a bit nervous, but they are enthusiastic, and we will show that they have talent, which can emerge to represent Jamaica,” she added.

Principal Christie has also been celebrating his students’ successes in other areas. “We placed first in the School’s Gospel Choir competition this year; and our students have been called on to participate in teams representing Jamaica in cricket, hockey, and squash, as well as track and field,” he outlined with pride.

He is confident that Papine High will continue to excel in many areas, as the teachers are committed to ensuring that students perform well.

“My staff members display keen interest in student welfare and development, and are prepared to go the extra mile. They even provide free extra classes on the weekends and during mid-term,” he explained.

Plans are on-stream to venture into new territories, such as a breakfast programme to start in September, which will be partially funded by proceeds from a recycling project, in which students assist in redeeming plastic bottles for cash.

The project will augment the existing school-feeding programme, which relies heavily on the chicken-rearing and vegetable farming undertaken by students who study agricultural science.

These, according to Christie, are critical elements since some students sometimes arrive at school without having had a meal.

“Like other educational institutions, we do not have enough resources, therefore, we need to be creative and use what we have well,” he maintained, noting further: “My objective is to send increasing numbers of students on to pursue tertiary education and make Papine High one of the schools of choice in the Corporate Area.”

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/career/Papine-High-School-celebrates–firsts-_19152773

MINISTER of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna has encouraged members of the Jamaican Diaspora to lend their support to the enrichment and further development of the artistic and cultural legacy that has helped to make Jamaica a formidable global force.

Minister Hanna was addressing delegates to the 6th Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference, who were specially invited to a featured mounting of the Rastafari Unconquerable exhibit and Sunday dinner at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, Sam Sharpe Square, which was hosted by the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) on June 14.

“I’m also inviting you to come back to Jamaica and join us in this year’s Emancipation and Independence Celebrations under the theme: “Proud and Free…Jamaica 53,” she encouraged the overseas delegates, who hailed from the United States of America, Canada and, the United Kingdom.

Acknowledging that Jamaica holds pride of place as one of the “cultural capitals of the world,” the culture minister emphasised that her ministry has been working to “better manage the country’s cultural agencies and boards”.

To this end, she highlighted the fact that this year will see the opening of three new museums — Simon Bolivar Centre in Kingston, National Museum West in Montego Bay, and the Natural History Museum of Jamaica, to be located at the Institute of Jamaica.

“These new museums are in addition to the four other facilities, which we implemented in 2014,” she added.

Minister Hanna also disclosed that she was looking forward to the announcement of Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and, she will be travelling with a team to Bonn, Germany for the 39th session at the end of the month.

“I will be leading a team to attend this session, to make the presentation for the Blue and John Crow Mountain National Park to be accorded World Heritage status, a designation that would make it the first mixed site recommended in the region,” she said, adding, “It would join 32 other such sites around the globe.”

The special tour of the Rastafari: Unconquerable, exhibit formed part of a series of activities organised by Jamaica National during the Jamaica Diaspora Conference, which was held from June 13 to 18 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

In his presentation Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National, encouraged the Diaspora Conference delegates and guests to pledge their support to cultural entities, such as the National Gallery of Jamaica and the National Museum West, which seek to maintain the foundation of the nation’s rich cultural heritage.

“We ought to enable the second, third and fourth generation Jamaicans in the diaspora to have an appreciation of their past; and, what better way to do so than to undergird the institutions that have been charged with this responsibility,” he emphasised.

He also implored the conference delegates and guests to aim to “broaden the conversation by adding another element to the discussion — and that is preserving our history and culture through support of these institutions, beyond the Diaspora Conference”.

In addition to a viewing of the special exhibit on the history of Rastafari in Jamaica, the more than 200 guests also viewed the award-winning photographs of rural high school students, who participated in 2014-2015 cycle of the JN Foundation Resolution Project exhibition, under the theme “Rites and Rituals”.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Hanna-calls-on-diaspora-to-support-the-arts_19152929

JAMAICA’S road users can now know where fatal road crashes are occurring daily with the development of the JNGI Fatal Crash Map.

According to Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, director of Mona GeoInformatics Institute at The University of the West Indies (UWI), anyone can now retrieve this information online.

“We want to be able present information to stakeholders as it happens,” Dr Lyew-Ayee told guests at the crash map’s launch at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, UWI, Mona campus, last Thursday.

Sponsored by JN General Insurance Company (JNGI) and the JN Foundation, the map is updated every day using data supplied by the Police Traffic Division. It is available exclusively on the website at www.jngijamaica.com and has data from January 1, 2015.

“You are nine times more likely to be killed in a road crash in Jamaica than you are in England. As a major motor insurer in Jamaica, JNGI has a substantial vested interest in this situation improving,” said Chris Hind, general manager of JNGI.

Hind indicated that the JNGI Fatal Crash Map is a follow-up to the company’s “Crash Hot Spot” road safety campaign launched three years ago. Conceptualised from research conducted by Dr Lyew-Ayee, the most dangerous stretches of the road network were identified and branded by JNGI, using signs and billboards to warn road users to take special care.

“Last year, we lost 331 lives on the road and 90 were pedestrian,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Allen, head of the Traffic Division.

“We have zeroed in on those areas,” he continued.

Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National Building Society, lauded the joint venture.

“A relationship developed between Mona GeoInformatics and JNGI, along with other elements of the JN Group,” he said.

This collaboration led to the production of a road safety documentary ‘Decoding Dangerous Roads’; as well as research into other risks associated with the Jamaican environment.

“The management of the reduction of road fatalities must depend on bringing greater knowledge and awareness to the process,” Jarrett continued.

He also gave credit to the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) for originally reaching this conclusion, which led to the start of the research by the Mona GeoInformatics Institute.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/auto/Road-alerts-at–your-finger-tips-_19154288