No mercy at Alpha - School forces poor-performing students to sit CSEC privately
Published:Sunday | June 5, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
THE Convent of Mercy (Alpha) Academy has instituted a hard-nosed, no-compassion policy on poor-performing students at its institution.
According to the school's policy, grade 11 girls who are not recommended by their teachers to sit at least five Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects will not be allowed to sit the regional exams at the school and must sit them privately.
At least one parent is fighting the policy, which she has described as discriminatory. A complaint lodged with the Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) against the school's decision to bar students who do not attain the five-subject bar from sitting the regional exams as part of its cohort claimed that the school was more interested in protecting its image than in the welfare of the students.
Keeping up appearance
"This is to protect the school's image and performance statistics," the parent charged in the complaint filed at the OCA on May 26, 2011.
"While attending a session to collect students' reports - who are in third form - on May 26, 2011 at the Convent of Mercy, Alpha, Mr (Sidney) Reid, the vice-principal for upper school, notified the gathering that any student who is unable to receive recommendation from their teachers to sit at least five (CSEC subjects) will not be allowed to write the exam at Alpha and will be asked to write the exam privately," read the opening paragraph of the complaint filed by the disgruntled parent.
It continued: "I spoke to Mr Reid after the session to bring to his attention that this practice, in my opinion, is a violation of the rights of students who can only manage to do four or less (CSEC subjects)."
In response to the parent's suggestion that the policy breached the right of the student, the vice-principal reportedly said that he did not share the same view and that he had "to maintain the standards at his institution".
According to the complaint, Reid explained that there was no violation of the right of the child "because even though the students will not sit the exam at Alpha, they are still allowed to attend school".
"I told Mr Reid that I will be reporting the practice to the OCA as one to be investigated. He told me that he doesn't think that my complaint will hold any traction," read another section of the hand-written complaint.
Gloria Thompson, an investigator at the OCA, said that the school's controversial policy should be scrapped with immediate effect. "It is an unacceptable practice," Thompson told The Sunday Gleaner.
She added: "It affects the children's self-efficacy, which impacts on their ability to do well in their exams."
Thompson explained that the barred students would go into the exams with this stain of being deemed not good enough etched at the forefront of their minds.
Exclusionary policy
Efforts to get a comment from Mackran Singh, principal of Alpha Academy, were unsuccessful. However, when contacted, Reid defended the five-subject policy. "All schools have their minimum requirement. I don't see where we have done anything wrong," he said.
"This is a policy we have had for years, donkey years, from as long as I can remember," Reid added.
The vice-principal pointed out that not many students are affected by the five-subject rule, and insisted that the school must have some standard.
Meanwhile, Colin Blair, director of communications in the Ministry of Education, told our news team that the school's posture towards the poor-performing students is not in stride with the general ethos of the education ministry.
"That sounds exclusionary and the ministry's policy is one of inclusion wherever possible," said Blair.