Editorial | Celebrating small victories

Nine months ago, Pembroke Hall High School in St Andrew was in the spotlight for a crisis that affects too many of Jamaica’s secondary schools.

More than seven in 10 of its grade-seven intake either couldn’t read, or did so by as many as four levels below their current age and grades. The reading problem persisted during the students’ high school careers.

Recently, Pembroke Hall High shared some good news. Of the 220 children who enrolled at the start of the last academic year, three quarters (76 per cent) had, by the time they were heading to Grade 8, had improved their reading by at least two grades. For 29 per cent (63 students), the improvement was three grades or better, based on the school’s internal assessment.

The Gleaner celebrates Pembroke Hall’s achievements, and endorses, as well, Education Minister Dana Morris’ recent reinstatement of reading and comprehension (in English) key, stand-alone components in the curriculum of Jamaica’s primary schools. This is essential if Jamaica is to turn around the problem of more than a third of Jamaican students annually ending primary education unable to read at their age and grade levels.

These figures tell Jamaica’s poor education outcomes down the road, weak performances especially in maths and English and the sciences in the regional Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams for secondary students. Indeed, at CSEC fewer than a fifth of Jamaican students pass five subjects, inclusive of maths and English, at a single sitting.

But Pembroke Hall High’s commendable gains are not primarily due to the education ministry’s reading initiative. Much of the credit goes to its adoption of Holy Trinity High School’s Grade Seven Academy literacy programme, on which the two institutions have collaborated.

Holy Trinity High, a Roman Catholic-owned high school in downtown Kingston, had an even more severe problem than Pembroke Hall. Over 90 per cent of the students it enrolled annually read at several levels below Grade 7, the starting grade in high schools.

GRADE 7 ACADEMY

In 2024 the school launched its Grade Seven Academy, which the first two years of secondary schooling prioritises foundational recovery through a double-block schedule. Daily, students are provided with two 90-minute sessions dedicated exclusively to language arts and mathematics. By reducing the curriculum from 13 subjects to seven core areas, the programme maximises time on task for literacy, which is supported by 40 minutes of daily technology-aided learning.

Holy Trinity High, like its prodigy, Pembroke Hall High, has shown impressive results. However, it is not only these two high schools that have demonstrated that appropriate interventions can deliver big turnaround in reading and literacy. And there it is not a single system that has proven effective.

This newspaper has previously highlighted impressive outcomes at Denham Town High School, where, usually, less than three per cent of its entry cohort is literate. At Denham Town, and elsewhere, the Creative Language Based Learning Foundation (CLBL), has demonstrated that relatively few hours of student contact, using the American-developed Lindamood-Bell system, which focuses on the sensory-cognitive processing necessary for reading and comprehension, can dramatically lift reading skills.

The problems that these and other initiatives seek to attack are deep. Their solution is urgent.

Indeed, across the island, hundreds of children are entering secondary education unable to decode simple text, recognise basic letters or comprehend age-appropriate material. According to the Jamaica Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2022, 38 per cent of students aged seven to 14 have not acquired foundational reading skills, while only 50 per cent of them have acquired foundational numeracy skills.

PROFOUND COSTS

The costs of persistent low literacy can be profound. Illiterate young people are at higher risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. Moreover, the capacity to read is foundational to critical thinking and effective communication and matriculation to higher education.

Failure to make gains will keep Jamaica trapped as a low-wage, low-technology, low-productivity and low-value added economy, unable to compete in a global economy, which is increasingly driven by digital technology.

Denham Town High, Holy Childhood High, Pembroke High and others that are making positive gains demonstrate that Jamaica need not be trapped in a cycle of poor education outcomes and persistent poverty. Systems that effectively teach children to read, write, comprehend and do sums at their age levels must be scaled and deployed across the primary system.

In the meantime, we celebrate these small victories.