Fair Prospect High sees improvement in English passes

Fair Prospect High School in Portland has recorded a marked improvement in English A outcomes, with its pass rate rising by 33 percentage points in the 2025 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. The proportion of students passing the subject climbed to 73 per cent, from 40 per cent a year earlier.

The school is among 56 institutions benefiting from the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information’s National School Learning and Intervention Plan (NSLIP). The programme targets secondary schools rated “not satisfactory” by the National Education Inspectorate, using targeted measures to improve CSEC results in English language and mathematics.

Interventions under the scheme include additional teaching time during holidays, extra lessons, homework programmes, psychosocial and parental support, closer monitoring of attendance, improved access to digital learning tools, and a stronger accountability framework. Teaching is tailored using assessment data.

Kimarie Copeland, acting head of the language department, said the focus had been on building students’ confidence in English. Teachers, she noted, had put in “a lot of work” through revision sessions, extra lessons, and holiday camps, supported by online classes. “Those are the extra times that were put in,” she said.

Principal Geoffrey Flemming, attributed the improvement to a “collaborative effort” among staff and an early focus on literacy development. The school reviews academic progress from grade seven, he said, aiming to move students from their entry levels to exam readiness. “We focus on incremental improvement, where students are coming from, and how they exit the school,” he said.

Flemming added that reading across subject areas is emphasised from the first year of secondary schooling through to grade 11. He argued that NSLIP support had reinforced this approach and made a tangible difference.

Students credited teachers for the improved outcomes. Michelle Bowers said they were “really appreciated” and “special” to students, acknowledging the challenges of teaching and urging staff to “stick around”, given how well students had ultimately performed.

Dominique Walters, a former deputy head boy who earned passes in six CSEC subjects, said he had enjoyed his years at the school, describing the teachers as “top teachers”.

Support under NSLIP also extended to mathematics. Zandraleisha Eccleston, a mathematics teacher, said the school had benefitted from a mathematics coach provided by the ministry, helping staff to identify learning gaps and tackle what she described as “maths-phobia”. Learning manipulatives, she added, had enabled students to visualise complex concepts, build confidence, and improve performance.

Nationally, 85 per cent of Jamaican students secured a passing grade in English A in the 2025 CSEC examinations, and 44 per cent passed mathematics –up from 76 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, in 2024. Both results exceeded the regional averages of 80 per cent for English A and 39 per cent for mathematics.