Mona Heights reaches higher- School focused on improving performance

For Fabian Mahabeer, principal, Mona Heights Primary, in St Andrew, the past year has been filled with many accomplishments. However, of all the successes the school has attained, what stands out in his mind is its exceptional improvement in numeracy and literacy.

In an interview with The Gleaner, the principal indicated that although the school is persistently working to achieve 100 per cent in both numeracy and literacy, he said much commendation must be given to the teachers and other stakeholders who have improved literacy from 70 per cent to  95 per cent, and numeracy from 45 per cent to 85 per cent.

He said the focus for the future, is to fix the issues, which affect students from they enter the school at grade one, in order to avoid remediation at a later stage. He believes what has also helped the school to achieve its successes in literacy and numeracy was the completion of the construction of the grade one block for the students coming from basic school. He said the school has serious problem with overcrowding, as it was built for 600 students, but now caters to more than 1200 students.

“For math especially, we have taken a deliberate approach to strengthen the performance of math on both the end of the teacher and the student. Coming here, there was a casual approach toward the subject,” he said

“When I came here, I introduced problem-solving to the whole school. I remember  an assessment was given and it (the result) was horrible . The brightest student did not pass so we recognise that there was a problem. From there on, I made sure that the teachers were enrolled in workshops and started to introduce a new way of assessment and teaching,” he continued.

The principal believes also that data is a big contributor to the success.

“We rely heavily on data. Whatever assessment or remediation we do is data driven. So I would know every child coming in grade one, what are their strengths or weaknesses and right through the whole school. There has been a quantum leap in the numeracy and that is largely dependent on how the teachers have changed the strategy and the appreciation of students for the math. We try to go from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract,” he said.

“We still have a far way to go but at least there is a conscious effort and appreciation by both the teachers and the students. Same thing for the literacy but math was really our greatest challenge, still is, but we have come a far way,” he concluded.