Tashieka Mair, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
SCORES OF students of Trelawny and St. James, aiming to boost their preparation ahead of the upcoming Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examinations, participated yesterday in the The Gleaner's Youth Link CSEC seminar at the Montego Bay Civic Centre.
The Gleaner's corporate affairs officer, Terry-Ann Wilson, said the newspaper company has always supported education through sponsorships and outreach programmes such as these seminars.
PERSONS WHO MARK THE EXAMS
"We noticed the low grades that students have received at the CXC exams and in an attempt to correct this situation we came up with the concept of preparing seminars where students would be lectured by persons who actually mark these exams," Ms. Wilson said.
Clement Radcliffe, CSEC lecture series coordinator and Margaret Muchette-Phillips, accounts teacher at Kingston College, brought clarity to challenging topics.
Mr. Radcliffe, a teacher at Glenmiur High, has been involved in the seminars since their inception five years ago.
Said Mr. Radcliffe: "I am very pleased with their response because they are very enthusiastic; they are prepared to answer and for the most part their answers make sense."
He said the main problem with mathematics was that there is not a systematic approach to teaching the subject from the fundamental level, upwards.
"The problem now is that students have too many gaps in their knowledge structure and that is creating a lot of problems. If we can, from early, get them to appreciate the whole logic involved, enhance their knowledge structure, and help them to be comfortable with the work through practice, then so many of them should not have so many problems."
Kevon Johnson, head boy of the William Knibb Memorial High School told The Gleaner that the seminar was beneficial.
"They have enlightened us on certain aspects of these subjects that we must grasp and I am sure that I can now go home and put their advice into practice," he said. "Every thing that they have asked us to do, I will do it and I am sure that I will be successful at the end of my exams."
