Education 2020 dead wrong about Hampton

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Having again used raw data in your ranking, you are dead wrong about Hampton School. In fact, we thought it was a step in the right direction when your representative visited the school and was able to examine our records, noting that most of our 2013 cohort passed math and English in grade 10 and moved on to other subjects, such that although we timetable only eight subjects, 46.4 per cent of our 2013 cohort graduated with nine to 12 subjects and another 36.3 per cent with eight, grossing 148, or 82.7 per cent passing eight-plus.

We refuse to follow the conventional wisdom of requiring our students to resit these subjects in grade 11 or be denied certain privileges, as this has worked very well for our students.

The Ministry of Education should be doing a thorough inspection of any school which started out at seventh with a 89 per cent Grade Six Achievement Test average and ended 33rd in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC). In fact, the National Education Inspectorate did this thorough inspection in February 2013 and gave the school an overall A in the 25 areas of its inspection, recording 12 exceptionally high and 13 good.

NO COMPULSORY SUBJECTS

There are no compulsory subjects at Hampton, but students are guided to appreciate that being optimally rounded requires a foundation of English, math and information technology (IT), thus all 179 students sat English (99 per cent pass), math (87 per cent pass), and IT (100 per cent pass).

Of 24 CSEC subjects offered, the cohort gained 100 per cent in 14 (including four sciences), with math being the only subject below 90 per cent. The overall CSEC pass rate was 97 per cent, with 53 per cent ones. Math strategies introduced should reflect significant improvement in 2014.

Our team is by no means satisfied with these achievements, but we know that every year, for at least the last 20, we record significant value added in academics, with a 2020 vision of 100 per cent passes in all subjects, with no grade threes.

However, there is no yardstick to measure the greater value added of important life lessons learnt when these young ladies graduate, especially if they return to sixth form.

TREVOR L.A. BLAKE

Board Chairman

Hampton School