Merl Grove defends policy

The Editor, Sir:

Permit me to speak to some misconceptions in the article 'School Probe', published in The Sunday Gleaner of July 18.

Summer school at Merl Grove is not compulsory. At Merl Grove we offer a package of four subjects during a three-week period at a cost of $5,500 to students of grades seven-10. Students are offered English language, mathematics and two other subjects. Students of grades nine and 10 choose the two other subjects that they wish to do. The programme, however, is tailored to meet the needs of the students who may do even more than four subjects. A few students from other schools join our own for the summer school.

Chemistry students of grade 10 were given a letter for their parents asking that they permit their daughters to do chemistry as one of those two other subjects. This was not the first time that such a letter was sent to parents. The letter also stated that the topics that were done in summer school would not be retaught in September. This was in an effort to let both parents and students understand the immensity of the task ahead of the students for the new school year, given the time constraints, and to keep the students focused.

The Caribbean Secondary School Certificate (CSEC) chemistry syllabus is long. In fact, all the CSEC syllabuses are long. Chemistry is, however, a very abstract discipline and there are more exciting subjects that students would want to choose for summer school. In summer school, there would be revision, practice and reinforcement of topics taught during the year, as well as the introduction of a new topic. The new topic is usually revisited when students go to grade 11. Worksheets covering the topic are normally set so students can have a fuller understanding of the topic.

Reasons

Let us be practical. Some students need to attend summer school and actually want to attend summer school. A class of students gave the following reasons for being in summer school:

• To learn more;
  
• To improve their skills;
  
• To gain advantage;
  
• To complete labs, SBAs and syllabuses;
  
• To use their time wisely.

As educators, we facilitate our students and use every possible means to have them achieve. There are students who are misguided and have to be steered along a path that will help them to succeed at high school. Many times, the teacher is the only guiding force for some of our young people. Some parents are very detached from the lives of their children and are only seen at the start of high school and at graduation time, or at some time when they may have been sent for because a misdemeanour was committed.

There are parents who ask about extra classes, some as early as grade seven. Parents who are involved with the school know that when they have difficulties, they can always approach the school for help. Some ask for financial help. Some even ask for counselling. And we do help. Space does not allow me to say here the number of ways in which we help to keep students in school.

Any parent who had a problem with sending his/her daughter to summer school if he/she believed that the student needed to be there could have approached the school. No parent approached us at Merl Grove. The media is not the place to solve personal problems.

Extended day

The 'Extended-Day' programme at Merl Grove is not new. It is a programme for extra classes. Parents and students ask for this. Apart from this programme that must be paid for, teachers call in students during the Christmas and Easter holidays for classes that are at no cost to the parents. Teachers use their time before school, after school and even lunchtime to help students. We know that we really go beyond the call of duty.

Students are encouraged to do English language, mathematics and two other subjects in the Extended-Day programme at a cost of $2,500 per subject for the year. If these extra classes go for a period of 18 hours during the year, then the rate per hour is at the ridiculously low amount of approximately $140. What do you buy for $140? Are we serious about high-quality education? More than $140 is spent on things of lesser importance. No student has to do extra classes with us. Some students have done only one subject while others have done as many as six. Some students follow a payment plan to cover the cost of these classes. We have never turned away a student who is unable to pay the small cost which is asked.

There are great benefits to be derived from doing the extra classes at school. Some of them are stated below:

• Classes are at school so students do not have to attend classes late into the night;
  
• The teachers know the weak-nesses of their students and are better able to address them in smaller groups;
  
• Some students need more time than others to accomplish a task and to internalise concepts;
  
• Students are guided in problem solving and the completion of labs;
  
• Classes are affordable.

Extra classes are endemic to Jamaican high-school students. Parents who want their children to achieve excellence spend thousands of dollars monthly on extra lessons, and it is not because their children are dull and are underachieving. They want their children to gain an advantage and to improve their academic performance in order to attain their full potential.

We need to understand that parents will be called on to bear some of the cost of their children's education, which should be treated as a priority.

I am, etc.,

AMY ALLEN

Principal

Merl Grove High School