Editorial | Vauxhall’s compact with us

Vauxhall High School is on Windward Road in eastern Kingston, on the opposite side of the thoroughfare where Bellevue Hospital is located. It is also adjacent to some of the city’s most blighted urban communities, where violence periodically erupts.

Vauxhall is into its sixth decade. It is, however, a newer high school – one of the all-age and junior high schools that were ‘upgraded’ in the 1990s without the commensurate economic support. In common with most of these schools, Vauxhall does not have a reputation for academic excellence.

In that regard, Vauxhall is among the schools alluded to in the Orlando Patterson-led commission’s report on the reform of Jamaica’s education system, which receives insufficient financial support from the Government to fully fund their operations and do not have alumni groups or parents with the wherewithal to cover the shortfall. Neither can they afford the extras that give schools the ability to enhance the quality of education they deliver.

The commission suggested new approaches to funding schools, including employing something akin to a system of means testing, and asking parents who can afford it to contribute more to their children’s education.

Yet, last week, Vauxhall High School took an action this newspaper applauds and against which we intend to hold its principal, Prudence Brown-Pinnock, accountable. It is something other schools with similar records should also consider for themselves.

CELEBRATING ACHIEVEMENTS

On Sunday, which, coincidentally, was the day after the annual Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (which tends to get more attention than academic performance), the school ran a half-page advertisement in this newspaper with the names of 74 students who passed between four and seven subjects at last summer’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams. The congratulatory message was also for teachers. Three students received additional acknowledgement: Janella McDonald, who was 12th in the island in her Caribbean History results; and Selena Black and Giovaunni Boxx, who were 13th and 64th, respectively, in Family Resources Management.

The fact that 54 students – 22 per cent of the grade-11 cohort – passed five or more subjects at CSEC in a single sitting, and that five students managed to pass seven, or that 30 per cent managed at least one, ought not be, in the general scheme of things, a matter for celebration. Context, however, is important.

First, many of the children who enter Vauxhall High at grade seven are among the one-third of students over whom this newspaper often laments for the fact that they end primary school ill-prepared for secondary education. Further, other than the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) CSEC examinations, many of Vauxhall’s students do the tests of other external examination bodies, particularly City and Guilds. For example, 60 per cent of the students who do external exams in maths complete the City and Guilds test. Forty per cent do so for English.

Five years ago, at the start of Mrs Brown-Pinnock’s tenure as principal at Vauxhall, the school’s passes in external exams averaged around 50 per cent. “We set a five-year target to improve that by 15 per cent,” she said. “We achieved 20 per cent. We are now at around 70 per cent (passes).”

Mrs Brown-Pinnock and her team are about to establish their next five-year target. It should be far more aggressive than the last one. The aim must be for the entire cohort passing at least five subjects, including maths and English, in a single sitting.

VISION AND LEADERSHIP

In the meantime, there is Sunday’s advertisement and the implicit compact it establishes not only with the students it celebrated, but those of the future, the communities served by the school, and with the wider Jamaica.

One notable point is that the ad invites inquiries. Its targets, presumably, are parents who are beginning to consider high schools for their children. That suggests ambition on the part of Vauxhall’s leadership.

“…Vauxhall is not known for academics,” Mrs Brown-Pinnock said. “We felt it important to acknowledge our students and our hard-working teachers. We wanted you to know their achievements and begin to position ourselves for academic excellence.”

But by placing this advertisement Vauxhall did something else. It challenged its constituents to hold it to account. In other words, that ad is a declaration that the school will not be constrained by its past or its environment.

We, and no doubt Vauxhall’s management, appreciate that there are many other ingredients in sustainable success than newspaper advertisements and declarations of intent. But Vauxhall’s position is a good start. Vision and leadership are critical components to the mix.

Which is why we celebrate with Vauxhall and invite other schools to take note.